


Passing Familiar

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Angst, Animal Mage, Blood and Injury, Blow Jobs, Childhood Trauma, Developing Relationship, F/M, Familiars, Family Feels, Fluff, Friendship, Gossip, Heavy Petting, Historical Inaccuracy, Humor, Implied/Referenced Impregnation, Loss of Virginity, Mages, Magic-Users, Marriage Proposal, Medical Inaccuracies, Medieval Medicine, Minor Character Death, Old Friends, Past Relationship(s), Road Trips, Romance, Sex, Sheep & Goats, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Snowed In, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Night, Weddings, Winter, characters as animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-27 06:18:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 37,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6273109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When plucky trainee witch Holly is invited East to hone her skills with Unicorn Wizard Brian, she discovers that he's gone south for the winter - and that the only beings inhabiting his home are a grouchy unicorn named Barry, a tiny Pomeranian named Princess Tinkles...and his sometimes goofy, sometimes sarcastic, always sweet-natured apprentice, Dan.  </p><p>The awkwardness between them does not ease when they end up snowed in together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ingredients for a Love Spell

**Author's Note:**

> Or: the magic AU that nobody ever asked for, very loosely based on Holly's request that someone write her as a mage. That somehow led to 'what if she were a unicorn wizard', which led to Dan/Holly, which led to...well, this. 
> 
> Also to Ross being a parrot. Just because.
> 
> Expect the ratings to change, and expect more characters to be added; and this will feature most of the Grumps in minor roles, though I'm only tagging characters that have major speaking roles and appear as humans.

These forests, Holly thought to herself quite bemusedly, just seemed to get thicker as she cut her way through them. "That's why they're called the Forrest of Impasse, goofy," she thought to herself, pulling her berry-colored cloak closer to her throat. "If it was supposed to be easy, it'd be called the Forrest of Dirt Roads." A chirp from her shoulder served as confirmation; bless Feathers for knowing when to agree with his mistress.

A high-pitched crow echoed from on high, and she held out her wrist, allowing the brightly-colored parrot to land there. “Is the coast clear, Ross?”

“Don’t ask me! Don’t ask me!” the parrot replied, flapping his red wings. 

“Some scout you’re turning out to be, fella.” He squawked and flapped his wings in irritation, and so she rubbed him under the beak and he let out a pleased trilling sound. “Aww, but I just can’t stay mad at you!” He hopped into position on her opposing shoulder, and Holly continued her forward pace. She lightly tapped her mare into a more purposeful trot as the foliage began to mercifully thin. “The Unicorn Wizard’s place should be right ahead!” Indeed, the smell of hearth smoke and the sight of a trammeled road encouraged her along until a small home appeared in the foreground.

“What a dump!” offered Ross from her shoulder, and Holly had to admit he wasn’t far off in his assessment. The shack was small, not the sort of palace she’d assumed that a mighty wizard such as Brian would live- what if she had the wrong place? An attack of nerves surprised her as she dismounted, and led her horse to the side of the house, where she hitched it with a few soothing pats. Holly then reached into her side bags and pulled out two small sacks; her supplies for the trip, mainly magical accouterments. She squared up her shoulders and then approached the door determinedly.

She knocked hard, and eventually it opened – and the man behind it was not precisely what she was expecting. Much younger, for one, with a mop of chestnut-colored curls and torn tights, his tunic open to the waist. She glanced at his chest and raised an eyebrow, and he automatically moved to cover himself.

“Uh…hi?” he offered, ruffling his own hair and leaning sleepily against the doorframe. 

“Hi, I’m looking for Unicorn Wizard Brian,” she said, with authority.

“Uh, he’s not here. I’m just his apprentice…” the guy’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you Fledgling Holly?” She nodded. “Shit, you didn’t get his letter. I told him to use fox post but he thought an owl would be faster. He said to stay where you were – he went south a couple of weeks ago to go to study with you. See, a couple of days ago he was using his scrying glass and figured out there’s supposed to be a huge snowstorm soon. He wanted you to be safe.”

“Geesh,” Holly remarked. “Do you think I could catch him somehow?”

“You aren’t a telepath or anything, right?” she shook her head. “Then we’re gonna have to wait ‘til he turns around. Or you could leave a note with me! I’m super responsible.” A loud rattling noise came from within the shack, followed by the sound of something singeing. “…I have to check the oven now. Would you like to come in?”

Holly thought that would be nice – it was getting a bit chilly, the skies overcast and gray. “I’ve got a horse outside, but I guess I could come in for awhile. I could probably get back to the town I stopped in last night if I leave soon.”

She entered the shack and was surprised by the appearance of the place; though the outside was nothing to sneeze at, the inside sported glowing, honey-colored wooden floors and hand-crafted tables and chairs; it consisted primarily of a single great room, with a thick fur rug, a hearth upon which something smoked appealingly, an oven – in which something smoked foully – and a large sofa. Two beds and a clothing press sat abovestair in the loft, and there were a number of large windows letting in a flood of graying sunlight. 

The young man let out a yelp and a curse as he pulled a smoking loaf of black bread from the oven, discarding the protective brass tong he’d used to pull it out. “Oh, you can totally stay the night. Brian would want that, and there’s plenty of room with him gone…” he trailed off as Holly waved her hand, and the wrecked bread suddenly became a golden brown loaf, the scent of burning bread turned to that of fresh, well-crafted bread. He raised an eyebrow and set it on the table. “Is that your power?”

“Oh, that’s just one of them.” She said. “Mostly I can talk to birds – a few other animals too, but I’m great with them - and at potions.” She clicked her tongue and held out her index finger, and Feathers hopped his way down her arm to settle and bill on the tip of her finger. It wasn’t much by the way of impressive accomplishment, but it had been enough to draw the attention of the famous head of the entire tribe of witches and warlocks who practiced in surprising conspicuousness throughout the land. It had not been this way when Holly was a child, but Unicorn Wizard Brian had opened the floodgates between humanity and the world of the wizard, and now they existed in general harmony together. It helped, she thought wryly, that he feared no human being. Brian often took young wizards in for training, one in the winter and one in the spring, and the head of her coven had passed her name along. Brian apparently considered her potential incredible, had told her that her gifts were important, and needed to be cultivated. So here she was - with his assistant, who was staring at her bird with interest.

“Do you talk to him?” the man asked. He set out a small crock of butter by the bread and then turned toward the hearth.

Holly clucked her tongue gently, offering Feathers a tiny bit of berry pastry left over from her breakfast. "Of course. He's my familiar," she said. "His name is Feathers and I hand-raised him." Feathers replied to Holly’s praise by pecking the meal from her fingers - and the fingers themselves, causing her to complain mildly at the pain. “Oh so hungry,” she cooed.

"What about him?" he asked, eyeballing the parrot. Ross had flown from her shoulder seconds after her entrance and perched before the fire to stretch his wings and warm himself. 

"Oh, that's Ross...don't worry, his bark's worse than his bite!"

"Dumbass!" the parrot offered, strutting across the backpiece of the chair and stretching his neck. 

“Be nice,” Holly ordered, and the parrot cackled, marching proudly in place. "Do you have any pets?" she asked.

He shrugged. "My dog; she’s sleeping under the bed upstairs. And a unicorn - we call him Barry."

"Oh that's..." her eyes went wide. "What?!"

"Duh, unicorn wizards keep unicorns. Kind of goes with the name," he said, pulling bowls from the small shelf nearby the hearth. “You aren’t in the high country anymore, Holly. We do things different in the east.” He seemed to regret his sharp tongue, then turned toward the stew and gave it a stir. “Come on, this is almost ready. Would you like some? Maybe after we’re done we’ll see if Barry’s still awake.”

Her belly grumbled as he slid the cauldron from the hearth and the scent of lamb stew filled the air. “What’s your name?” she asked, as he started ladling it into the earthenware bowls. 

“I’m Dan,” he smiled, looking up for just a second from his task. “Brian calls me Danny but…nah, I think I like Dan better.”

“Okay Dan,” Holly decided, letting Feathers hop back toward her shoulder. “I guess I’ll stay.”


	2. A Tin of Milk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly meets a unicorn, performs bird-based diplomacy, helps Dan with his dog and discovers the awkwardness of sexual tension.

Holly inhaled the stew’s rich, herby scent before popping the first spoonful into her mouth. For all of Dan’s apparent failures as a baker, he wasn’t bad at stew. She found several bowls of the stuff disappearing into her belly, warming and filling her, before she reached her limit. With a lot of bread and butter on top.

Apparently needless travel built up an appetite. 

He ate sparingly but took his time and got his fill, not even making note when she spared bits of carrot and potato for Ross and Feathers. The two birds were given more berries by their mistress before the humans were full; as the birds took their share Holly watched Dan rinse the dishes, and got up to dry them without asking on a small strip of lawn kept for the occasion. 

“Thank you,” he said. “Are you too full to go out? I need to make sure Barry’s fed.”

“Toldja the horse needs to be tied up,” she said, smiling. “Be a good boy, Ross.”

“Bite me!” Ross replied. Dan eyed the parrot as it hopped on the table, preening. Feathers, mischievous but much more warlike, made a charge at the other bird and seemed to delight in its brethren’s frantic squawking. Holly sighed and tied her cloak into place. “That’s as nice as they’re ever going to get, let’s go.”

The outside world was bitterly cold, and Holly tucked her cloak closer to her chest. Dan shivered hard enough to knock his knees together but trudged bravely forward to the barn. “Come get the horse and follow me.”

She found the borrowed palfrey exactly where she’d left it, and didn’t have to do much to coax it into forward motion. She walked it to the small stone barn erected a few feet behind the cabin, and found Dan carrying large bales of oats and hay toward a stall in the back.

“You can pen your horse up over there.” He gestured toward an empty stall and got to work feeding the…well, yes. The unicorn. Holly tried not to gawk as she ensured her horse’s safety, then watered and fed it from the surplus of Dan’s store. She tucked a sugar cube into its mouth before turning to take it all in.

The unicorn, in a word, seemed bemused. It was pale white, with a glittering, iridescent horn, and a rainbow mane that was long, shiny, well-maintained, and seemed to glitter in the waning sunlight pouring in from the cracks in the thatched roof. Its tail twitched, and it’s pale eyes stared back at her with curiosity. It chewed contentedly on the chunk of apple Dan had given him and seemed to be world-weary, even long-suffering. Well, long-suffering for a horse.

“There you go, Barry.” Dan smiled proudly and clucked his teeth. “What do you think, Holly? This is your first time looking at a real, live unicorn – he’s awesome, right?” 

“He looks really normal,” she admitted. Aside from the knowing look in his eyes and his coloring and horn, she supposed he was.

Dan laughed. “You haven’t seen him fly yet,” he said. 

“Maybe I will,” Holly said smoothly. “Do you ride him a lot?”

“Not as much as I’d like – mostly when Brian’s gone. Brian wants to keep him healthy and he told me to keep him in shape while he was gone. I think he loves this fella more than he likes humans.” The unicorn’s tail slapped Dan’s rear and he grunted. “Don’t be mean,” he said, then bribed the unicorn with several lumps of sugar. “Is the horse yours?”

“Oh, no – I traded a couple of things in town for her,” she said. A comb and some tooth polish, to be honest – the people of that town had been in desperate need of hygienic aid. “But I think I’ll keep her. I think she probably needs me.”

Dan nodded, shivered. “Okay, it’s way too cold out here. I’m going back inside.”

“Right behind you,” she said. 

On the way back into the house, she watched Dan walk. There was something indefinably magical about him, all right – his long, easy stride, the way his wide eyes took in the deep, blue-grey-limbed beauty of the woodlands around them, and the way the wind caught his long hair and wove his uncontrolled curls into an even bigger nest of ruddy tendrils. He looked like a wood sprite come to flesh. Holly frowned at the sudden thought and pushed it away – and if he noticed her distracted thoughts he made no remark upon them.

The sound that greeted them as the unlocked door slid open caused her to jump back in dismay.

It was a veritable circus. Ross was squawking and running around the floor in uneven circles, with Feathers a few feet behind him, making angry sounds of his own – and chasing them around the floor was a long-haired ball of orange-blonde fluff.

“Tinkles, NO!” Dan said, almost tripping over his own feet as he made a dive for said ball of fluff. The dog – apparently assuming that her master wanted to play – yipped and play-bowed at him, running around in loops as he tried to grab her.

“Hellbeast! Hellbeast!” Ross offered from under the table, where he’d taken cover when Dan diverted the dog from his path. Holly sighed and got on her knees to rescue the bird.

“Come on, Ross. The dog doesn’t mean to scare you. I think,” she said, clucking her tongue, cooing, until Ross edged toward her and her hand.

“She doesn’t,” Dan insisted. His attempts at soothing the dog in a similar fashion just resulted in her taking a flying leap onto the sofa. “Roxy Avidan, get…over….here. UGH!”

“Peanuts, please,” Ross said, hopping up Holly’s hand and digging his claws into her elbow. She almost rolled her eyes – of course he expected to be bribed for good behavior.

“We don’t have peanuts here,” she sighed. 

“Milk?”

“I didn’t see a cow…” She tried to catch Dan’s eye.

“He drinks milk?” Dan was under the sofa, trying to draw Roxy out from her newest hiding place.

“He loves it. I raised him on a farm,” she said.

“Uh - we trade in town every week for the dairy we do get. Most of it’s in the cold store next to the hearth- it’s the next room in.”

Holly followed his directions and found enough milk for the three of them to last the next day or so; the supplies would need to be replenished. She wondered briefly what the neighboring town he’d mentioned was like before taking the milk-filled pitcher and pouring a tiny bit of milk into a pie pan. She carried it into the room and set it on the table. The parrot walked down her arm and settled there, lapping the fluid up with a look of total contentment.

“Now you,” she said, turning toward Feathers, “should know better. No snack until you learn how to be a gentleman!” The pigeon made a sound of protest. “Uh-huh,” she said. “No back talk!”

Holly sighed, relieved to have the duty done – she walked to the kitchen window and took one more look at the world outside. Light was on the wane; it was near to candletime, and she looked around for something to brighten the room. Several thick tallow candles were discovered on her own and lit and planted on the table, then the various lanterns about the room. When it was fully burnished, she turned to glance back at Dan and found him flat on his stomach with the dog settled between his shoulder blades. “Would you like a bit of help?” she asked.

“Please?” he said. She managed not to laugh as she got on her knees and sat cross-legged on the floor. She then made a soft clicking sound with her tongue. The Pomeranian looked up, tilted her head, ears ticking forward in curiosity. She hummed softly and the dog hopped off of Dan, trotting over to Holly and taking a curious sniff of her offered hand. Soon the dog lay curled up in her lap and Holly gently combed her fingers through the dog’s long, soft fur as it panted, contently.

The disgust in Dan’s expression forced a laugh from Holly’s lungs. “Is she always rambunctious?” 

“Only when I haven’t walked her,” he said. 

“Why did you call her Tinkles and Roxy?” she asked.

“Roxy’s her real name,” Dan said. “Tinkles is a nickname Brian gave her. It’s a long story,” he said. 

“You love her a lot, don’t you?” she could tell by the vague envy in his eyes as she stroked the dog’s back.

“She’s the only thing I have from home,” he admitted. “That’s another long story,” he said. There was no guarantee he’d tell it.

A crafty grin lit Holly’s face. “Your powers have to be great, to get Brian to name you his apprentice.” she asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me to show you what I can do? ‘Cause I’ll totally show off that shit. Just don’t, like, expect something super exciting.” He walked to the small set of shelves built into the kitchen wall and delivered several pots filled with soil and a handful of seeds to the table. She picked up Tinkles and carried the pup to the table.

He planted the seeds deep and poured a bit of the day’s water onto it. The young wizard stood back from the pot, incanting softly under his breath. Holly's eyes widened as a green sprout emerged from the belly of the pot, waving upward, spilling soft green leaves and several thick purple buds. They bloomed open, showing yellow stamens and highlights. The flowers resembled irises, though Holly had never seen a color so brilliant on a natural bloom.

She sniffed the blossom and smiled, gently dissuading Feathers from taking a peck at it. The flowers smelled like lilies. "That's a cool power," Holly said.

He scoffed and sat back on his heels. "Yeah, and it's my ONLY power! Why can't I do amazing, legendary shit, like conjure up dinosaurs or something?”

 

“And you think being able to talk to animals is cool?” Dan shot her a dirty look. “Okay, it _is_ kind of cool.”

 

He groaned and gestured toward the blossoms, turning them with a wave of his hand into a sunflower, ripe and spilling seeds. Feathers and Ross rushed the table and started greedily eating the bounty. “I really do think it’s neat, Dan,” she said, as he turned his back.

 

He frowned. “Brian says it is, but I wish I could do more. I should be able to – I’m his apprentice so my magic should be like, a hundred times better, right?” he said. “I’m too tired to talk about it now. Are you ready for bed? You must be tired, right? I’ve been talking too much.” She gently handed him his dog back and he moved to carry the pup up to the loft, cuddling her the whole way. “How did you get down here? You’re totally afraid of this ladder,” he asked Tinkles.

 

“Maybe she wanted to annoy them that much,” Holly suggested.

 

Dan laughed. “She’s usually a laid-back girl – like I told you – unless someone’s got treats.” Holly climbed up afterwards, blowing out torches and candles as they went. Dan deposited his dog onto the bed, then hauled his tunic over his head. The total lack of self-consciousness made Holly stare, stupefied, for just a second.

 

Then she shrugged. Well – when in Rome. She removed her overtunic and tights, revealing simple, white and completely boring underclothes. Her sole concession to glamour came in the form of hand-stitched bluebells running up the hipline of each pantalet.

She caught sight of Dan and noticed he had deliberately averted his eyes, a slight blush staining his cheeks. Didn’t he see her as just another wannabe wizard under Brian’s protection? Or had she gone too far? Holly averted her own gaze and dove under the covers, pulling them up over her head. The warmth of the down pulled her away quickly to sleep, allowing her peace and sanctity.

And – unknown to Holly, unknown to Dan – above them a regular fall of white flakes began to tumble from the sky and coat the cabin’s roof.


	3. Several Inches of Fresh Snow

She heard a bird chirping by the window. It was a fairytale way to wake up out of the solid blackness of unconsciousness, and Holly rolled quietly toward the sound and let herself soak into the quiet, peaceful chirping sound.

When she opened her eyes, Ross sat perched on her chest.

“Breakfast!” he called, as she jumped back from the sound of his voice.

“Geesh, good morning to you too,” she murmured. “Where’s Feathers?”

“Outside outside outside! Oatmeal please, lots of milk!”

She yawned, pulled the bedclothes down, made it and then rummaged in her runsack for a fresh outfit. “I told you there isn’t a lot of milk left,” she scolded mildly. “It’ll probably be plain oatmeal with jam.”

“Boring!” Ross called. Holly rolled her eyes and drove fingers through her pink hair…

Hmmm….

She snapped them and, running each one again through her locks, quietly turned her hair a bright green. It was a springlike shade – and she felt the greenry of the season nearly on the tip of her tongue.

She made breakfast – some ham that smelled good, a few eggs, and some oatmeal. Everything sat fresh and steaming on the table by the time she thought to search out Dan to join her. Maybe he’d gone to the nearby town?

That thought died when she headed to the back window and saw Dan struggling to dig them a pathway to the barn through what looked like six feet of snow. She rapped lightly on the thin bottle glass of the window and Dan – a few feet away – shrieked and pasted himself in the face with the snow, causing Feathers to caw and peck in dismay, flying off of his place at Dan’s shoulder.

How odd. The bird normally didn’t like anybody but Holly to touch him.

“Can I help?” she yelled.

“No! It’s cool!” Dan shouted back, and then went back to digging at the snowpack with his bare hands. Holly sighed. He’d freeze to death before he finished!! Better to interfear, just a little. She chanted softly, pushing her hands out ward. The snow lying between Dan and the barn started to shift and roll, clearing the path, until it hit the front door barn and split, making two mini-mountains on either side of the front. 

He fell back in shocked, then stared back at Holly, who tried and failed to look innocent at Dan’s confusion. She just smiled and let him tend to the animals before repeating the process with the snow clogging the front door.

By the time she got to the back door, Dan was exercising Barry, who seemed to want to be anywhere but on a lead in the cold. Holly’s mare stayed nearby, almost playing in the drifts, nudging Dan’s hand for sugar lumps. He locked eyes with Holly and shook his head at her with a raised eyebrow. Holly grinned in response and waited for him to tramp back inside and knock the snow from his boots.

“Uh…it snowed right up to the middle of the door.” Dan shoved back his hood and shook some snow from his curls. “If you couldn’t tell. So you can move snow now?” he asked.

“Oh, I always could,” Holly said innocently. “If I woke up sooner I would’ve helped sooner - but I didn’t want you to starve, so,” she pointed happily at the repast she’d made and he smiled.

“Payback for yesterday?”

“Yep,” she said happily. “Come on and eat!” She gave Feathers and Ross their breakfast, and Dan, out of the kindness of his heart, re-bloomed the sunflower seed plant. The silence was companionable but brief, as Ross soon started squawking about beer and milk again.

“…Your parrot drinks beer?”

Holly shrugged. “Ever since he’s been with me, he has.” 

“How did you find a bird like that, anyway?” asked Dan, his chin on his folded hands. The parrot stared back at him, colorful as ever, and twice as amused by the human’s expression. “I’ve never seen one as bright in the east.”

“I didn’t really find him,” she admitted. “He found me. Flew right into my window when I was five and just starting to learn birdcalls. It’s how my folks figured out I had a power.”

“And you’ve been together ever since?”

“Yep,” Holly said.

Dan considered her word as he got. “What’s it like?” he asked. “Belonging like that?”

“To a coven?” She shrugged. “It’s just like being in a family.”

“I can’t remember what it’s like to be in a family either,” he admitted, causing a pang of pain to pierce her heart. “I’ve been with Brian since I was seven. I mean, Brian and I have a family, kinda, but I’m also sort of his friend, and he’s my mentor. So it’s weird,” he finished nervously.

“I’m sorry,” she said reflexively.

“No, don’t –it’s cool. Can’t miss what you don’t remember,” he said. 

She pushed through the awkwardness. “Um…want to go take a hike?”

“If you want to be alone.”

“No,” she said, laughing. “A real hike, out in the woods.”

“You can’t hover or anything, can you?” he eyed her suspiciously.

“I’ll use my feet,” she said. “I promise.”

*** 

The woods were lovely, dark and quiet, and Holly found her mind drifting again as she watched Dan move out of the corner of her eye. What would it have been like to be in his shoes; a lonely boy at seven, sent off to train with the most powerful wizard in the world? She would have handled it poorly – she was not mature enough at that age. She was, she thought ruefully, barely mature enough to handle it now.

Her thought process completely derailed as snow clouded her vision. She fell over with a shriek, trying to brush her eyes clean.

When she looked up, there was Dan, laughing like a total nerd. “Tag, you’re it.”

“If you wanted to play you should’ve asked!” She called merrily, and bent to arm herself. She smacked him good with the next one, and he got her in the belly with a third. They went on like that, throwing snow and shouting like children, for the grand majority of the day.

***

“So what are you trying to learn?” Dan asked, as he pulled the joint of roasted lamb from the fire. “Brian never said what you’re trying to take a level in badass in.”

“Oh, this and that.”

“Like changing your hair color?”

She grinned, patting Ross’s beak. “I didn’t think you noticed.”

“Maybe I did way earlier, I just couldn’t think of anything to say about it, with you being a crazy badass snow mover and all.”

She shook her head. “Dan, I’m really not that special when it comes to witches. Most of the girls in my coven can do this stuff.”

His eyes widened at the implication.

“Haven’t you ever met any other witches?”

“Just warlocks, mostly. He doesn’t really pick girls to train.” Dan whistled and Tinkles came trotting up; he gave the dog a small piece of meat. “You’re different that way.”

Holly got up to help him set the table, and as she did her eyes caught sight of an instrument lying by the sofa. “Please tell me Brian plays that.”

He puffed up proudly. “Nope. That one’s all mine,” he said. Holly had produced a six-string lute and Dan immediately abandoned dinner to pick it up and pluck it.

“Do you sing, too?”

He did. The aire he sang was a popular tune about the Queen and her alleged assignation with a member of the French court. Holly chortled, and was happy that they were somewhere quiet and private and beyond the ears of the court.

“What about you?” he asked, offering it up.

She shrugged, plucked a tune that flowed quickly from the instrument to the air. Her cord progression was practiced and smooth and her aire on the maidens of Circe as old as the hills, but Dan took it all in silently, mouth agape.

“Is there anything you’re bad at?”

“Lots of things,” she said. “I can’t really sing, for one.”

“That's so not true but yeah, I’m not...”

She silenced him. “You’re kind, Dan,” Holly said, putting the lute away, standing up to go to the table. “And that’s something you should never be afraid to be.”

He weighed her words in his mind for hours after she deserted him for bed, until the fiery embers of the hearth burnt down to mere shadows of themselves.


	4. Several Tons of Fresh Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How does Flirting Work Again

They developed something of a routine in the ensuing month. They would trade off cleaning and cooking duties, and each would tend the horses. They would walk the woods together in the mornings, the birds and Roxie at their side, and in the afternoon try to teach each other new spells. After three weeks, he’d succeeded in figuring out how to roll small snowballs with spells and a gesture and she’d figured out how to turn Roxie’s fur bright pink on command; these were little kids tricks, unlikely to impress Brian when next they saw him, but progress and entertainment nonetheless. The nighttime would be for music. 

Then they would return to their lonely beds and listen to the fire crackle until it lulled them to sleep.

It was comfortably domestic. Holly couldn’t deny that she felt comfortable with Dan, which was strange as she barely knew him.

He knew as much about her as she volunteered; about life in the west, and living with a coven of sisters and mothers; how Feathers and Ross had found her. How she’d discovered the power of her magic. They were making friends – and never in Holly’s life had she ever made one of those by choice. 

Much less with a boy.

And that, she thought as she rose on the twentieth morning in the cabin, was all they would probably be. 

 

*** 

 

“Hey Holly, is my hair blue yet?” 

She glanced up from the spellbook. Dan stood before her, a small potion vial in his hand – and his hair was as brownish red as ever. She shook her head and he frowned.

“Takin’ a break,” he declared, disgust in his voice, setting aside the vial and wrapping himself in his cloak.

“Only if you need one,” Holly said. She honestly worried about how hard Dan tended to work himself. She heard the pantry door open and close and she poured out a handful of seeds for Feathers and Ross to eat; they were halfway through with the sultanas she’d poured them, so when Dan’s head peeped around the corner of the pantry she too wanted a distraction from animal transformation magic.

His enthusiasm was almost touching. “Come on, let’s make an ice castle!”

Holly raised an eyebrow at Dan’s sudden call. The idea was a new one; it wasn’t the kind of play she’d indulged in as a child with the coven. “Do we have enough water?”

“Can’t you make it rain?” he asked. She almost laughed; the statement was strangely innocent and very Dan.

“No, but I guess we could draw some from the river and try a quick freeze charm.”

That caused his enthusiasm to spike. “We can use these old horse troughs Brian has in the barn. It probably wouldn’t take too long if we start now.”

Holly shrugged. “Okay, start filling up the troughs; I’ll be there in a second!”

By the time she’d dressed up for the weather and convinced Feathers to stay inside and finish eating, she, Roxie and Ross were raring for sunlight. She spotted Dan instantly, with a full trough of water, trying to incant the correct spell. He raised his hand, the water in the trough glowed a glittery white…

….and turned water into frangipane.

He blinked at the result of his hard work and muttered a series of four-letter words. Holly muffled a laugh, then whispered the correct words. One gesture turned the white blossoms into ice.

Dan didn’t even look up. “I totally would’ve had it,” he insisted, bending to heave the trough over. 

“I know,” she said. “You were just a couple of words short.” She reached for the opposite end of the trough and helped Dan upend it. The result was a thick cake of strong ice. “It’s aqua unitus, not aqua unitus florid,” she said.

“I knew!” he said. “I so had it!”

She didn’t have the heart to tell him she thought he was wrong. “Come on,” she soothed. “We can probably do this quickly if we work together.”

And so they worked. Dan replenished the water, Holly incanted the spell, and together they pulled the logs of ice atop one another until they had a structure that loosely resembled an ice palace. It wasn’t grand but it served its purpose, and Holly grinned as she climbed inside with Dan behind her.

She backed up against the rear wall and leaned cautiously against it; to her surprise it held. Dan’s lithe frame cut a smaller shadow as he settled in beside her and leaned back.

“Wow. Have you looked up yet?”

She hadn’t, and when she did she was dazzled by the sunlight as it glittered through the panes. Rainbow colors sparkled all around them, and it seemed to explode in her bright hair, turning it pale puce with tiny flecks of gold. It made the red in Dan’s hair vibrant, and made the tiny flecks of green in his eyes glisten.

She stared at the ceiling. “It’s so…”

“…beautiful,” Dan agreed, but he was looking at Holly when he said it. He tucked his knees under his chin and stared at his tights.

“Thank you for doing this. I don’t think I could’ve come up with the idea by myself.”

“Oh,” he said in a small voice. “Thank you.” Then he glanced back at her. “Look at that sunset,” he said, and she was – not directly, of course, but at the colors it cast over them. She felt like they were the only two people in the world right now. 

She didn’t intend to find his hand, sprawled cool and bare against the snowpack, but she did. 

His thumb stilled and then hooked around her pinkie. Neither of them said or did a thing for a long time.

The silence was broken, as always, by someone else. “Freezing my wings off!” Ross yelled, entering the castle and running in circles as Roxy pursued him with mindless energy before flopping into the safety of Holly’s lap.

Dan automatically moved to stand. “I think I’m gonna go get something on the hearth,” he said. “Are you coming?”

Holly looked up from the lapful of Roxy she’d inherited and nodded. “Ross, go with Dan.”

“Boo!” the bird complained.

“Don’t you dare,” she scolded. “You’ll get warm much faster if you follow him.”

“Okay, okay!” the bird piped, and followed Dan inside.

Holly sat for awhile longer in the growing darkness, trying to figure out why his warmth lingered behind like a perfume. 

 

***

 

She eventually came inside chilly and wet from the weather but completely starving. Dan presented her with a wide smile and a mug of something hot and chocolate scented.

This got eyed curiously. "Did you really make me cocoa?" 

Dan shrugged - he poured the concoction into a mug and then pulled up a second cupworth for himself. "You spent a long time out there with Roxy. I thought you might be cold." His mildly traitorous dog jumped out of Holly’s arms when she heard her name and padded happily around Dan’s ankles. He rewarded her with a small sweetmeat flung from the tabletop.

"I am," Holly agreed, draining the cup with gusto. "Where did you even find chocolate for this?"

"Oh, Brian knows guys who know guys who totally knew this guy who came through with chocolate on a trade ship the other month." He sat down at the table, watched her drink.

His look was thoughtful, had humor in it, but he only succeeded in making her feel awkward. "Aww geesh, do I have snow on me?"

"Oh! No," he said immediately, and started watching Feathers and Ross reunite on the table, teaming up to destroy the remains of the morning bread.

"Then what are you looking at?" She hunched over her cup, blew on it as the steam tickled her nose.

There was a shrug. "I know it sounds super weird - we haven't known each other long at all - but I like making you happy," he said, almost shyly. "That's all." 

"Oh," she said. And tried not to flush at the proclamation. 

He seemed to take this as a negative signal. “Yep. Messed that one up.” He scrubbed his hand through his curls, tugged on them lightly, and glanced at her over his shoulder. 

“There’s nothing to mess up yet,” Holly pointed out. She took a satisfying sip and watched Dan blush – truly blush, then look away cough into his fist. “I don’t understand it either but you can’t tell me you’ve never had a girl flirt with you.”

His look was too wise, too knowing. “I live in the woods with my weird sort-of-brother and half the village thinks we’re creeps who drink unicorn blood. They don’t like us unless they need us for something.” He shrugged, became even more truthful. “Most of the girls I’ve been around are tavern girls. That’s why Brian visits them every time he’s in town. It’s less dangerous.”

“Oh,” Holly said. She hadn’t needed this vivid little detail of Brian’s sex life to complicate her cloudy mental image of him. “And you don’t?”

That he couldn’t seem to admit. “This is super dumb, Hol,” he said. The first time he’d ever given her a nickname. “I can grow a plant in two seconds and I have no idea what to do with you.”

“Who says you need to?” Holly said. “If I wanted Don Juan, I could probably make a clay doll and conjure him right up.”

“You can do that?!” Dan blurted, his total astonishment still touching her.

She thought – for just a second, an instant that fleeted away – about kissing him. Just pinning him to his chair and pecking his lips. He’d probably melt the same way he was melting her, and she had no idea if she wanted to leap that far yet. “Not yet,” she said, heading into the pantry to retrieve food for dinner.

When she returned, Dan was waiting with the cauldron. Dinner was a quiet affair. They both had too much to think about, and most of that thinking had to be conducted in silence that would only be broken by the morning light.


	5. One Rare Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan's experiment leads to a sudden twist in his relationship with Holly.

The following weeks were, in a word, awkward. Dan didn’t know how to react to her, Holly had no idea how to react to _them_ , and so the best thing either of them could possibly do was stay mum and pretend that they weren’t curious about Dan’s awkward flirtation and what it might mean for them both.

The solution was provided by pure luck. Well, pure luck and the tree the two of them grew by magic. 

It had been a simple, easy-going Sunday morning; the sun was bright, and the snow had begun to melt slightly. Dan had made no headway in turning his hair blue, and Holly, for all of her attempts at trying to turn water into wine (yes, literally, and she hoped no one in the village ever learned of her mischief) had failed. She let the birds and dog out for their afternoon romp and determinedly returned to the chore.

He gave up before she did, turning back toward the plants. Dan patted the soil that grew, soft and surprisingly warm, around the little tree he'd potted; a plant that she had no name for. "Brian," he said suddenly, startling Holly's eyes up and away from the page she'd re-read four times, "told me that there are only four trees like this in the whole forest. The land's too warm to keep them alive most of the time but maybe," he said, "with it being this cold this little guy has a chance."

 

It was such a Dan statement. Her heart lurched, and she looked at the tiny tree; it was as sickly as her mother had been before her passing, she thought, but wherever Dan touched it it glowed a soft, cool blue and seemed to perk.

 

The plant was, for all purposes, a fir tree, though this one smelled like Christmas oranges. A sudden urge to see what it might be pulled her away from her posset and she turned toward Dan.

 

"How can I help you?" she wondered, gently scattering Feathers and Ross as she stood and moved toward the table.

“Um….” He stood back from the table, thought hard enough to crease his brow and pointed toward the planet with his index finger. “Do you know the words for the spell of growth and protection? I can’t call them up to save my life.”

She smiled. “Rise and awaken, green, for I have…”

“…For I have,” Dan took up the recitation, following her pattern of speech, “a need to bring life to the world. Please bind the light in my hand and give growth to this before me…”

They were chanting it together, simultaneously, without even having to second guess the rhythm of the words. “…Please bring it joy and light. Please let it grow beyond my wildest imagination. Please let it make the world brighter for as long as it may live.” 

Silence. Maybe it didn’t work. Holly couldn’t bear to see Dan’s expression, to know that there was a gap in his best talent. Instead she heard wonder in his voice. “Oh Holly. _Look!_ ”

Holly opened her eyes and let out a quiet gasp. Before her the tiny sapling rose to nearly brush the ceiling of the cabin, the trunk thick and strong and threatening to burst the copper pot, a soft purple aura of light surrounding it. The scent of oranges filled the room, and from the tip of each branch grew a soft purple fruit. Holly cautiously plucked one and lifted it to her face; a warm scent, like mulled wine with spices, tickled her nose. She didn’t take a bite, set the fruit aside for a moment on the table; she had no idea if the blossom was poisonous or not. But it was beautiful, impossibly beautiful and real; she felt a wave of warmth and pride just looking at it. Dan had created life; he’d done it.

“You did it!” she cheered.

“We did it, Holly,” he said, but his eyes were brimming, glowing, as he stared at the beautiful plant he’d helped create.

In her glee, Holly’s impulse control faded to nothing; she automatically reached for Dan and turned him toward her. The surprise on his face was obvious. And, without thinking at all about what she was doing, Holly whirled toward Dan, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.


	6. One Interrupting Artist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’re interrupted mid-kiss by the appearance of a stranger at the door.

Holly had kissed men before; shepherd boys and visiting wizards, men in taverns and livery boys. Nothing more than a quick touch of the lips and a curious grope for each, but it still counted she supposed. She knew how to gently poke her tongue between a set of questing lips, how to circle and suck upon the intrusive appendage, and she definitely understood how to sigh and swoon for him.

That Dan lacked her experience was brutally obvious. His tongue parried and thrust like an errant sword about her mouth, and she had to suck it into her mouth to calm his aggressiveness. Dan surrendered with a moan, and his fluttering hands landed upon her hips. He crushed her body against his and her arms went vice-tight around his midsection.

Holly gasped quietly as a pounding at the door suddenly cut their embrace short. Dan groped toward the broadsword strapped to his back and Holly gently called a yapping Roxie back to the safety of the inner part of the room.

“Do you think it’s Wizard Brian?” she whispered.

“I hope so,” Dan said, licking his swollen bottom lip. Strangers were a dangerous gamble for Unicorn Wizards; every friendly face could be hiding a knife, an arrow, a dagger. “Who is it?” he yelled harshly, trying to peer through the slats to make out a face.

“I seek the counsel of Unicorn Wizard Brian!” called a masculine voice from the other end.

“He’s gone for the winter,” said Dan. “All we’ve got is a dog, two birds and a chick.” Holly elbowed him and he threw his hands up – he’d been trying to protect her, she realized.

“Please, please- it’s my family!”

That struck a blow to Dan’s soft heart, and he threw open the door.

The fellow before them was a tradesman judging by his dress, and his wholecloth clothing spoke of little wealth. He threw himself to his knees before Dan and Holly, right there in the snow. “Oh great and powerful Unicorn Wizards, I see your help!”

“Um….rise and stuff,” Dan said. “What do you need?”

“It’s my wife. She’s had a fever and I don’t know how to heal her, she burns and pukes like she’s being tortured. The king’s doctors have bled her and we’ve put an orange filled with cloves under her bed but she gets weaker all the time.”

“If you know the king then I have no idea why you’d need the help of someone like us,” said Holly.

The man said, “I work as a painter in his court and I’m beholden to him. Please, I’ll pay you anything….”

Holly tugged her cloak on and worriedly eyed the other man. “How long has she been sick?”

“A fortnight, maybe a score,” he shook his head sadly. “I don’t even know if she’s alive right now. I had to leave her with my old partner to get help.”

Dan had been sorting through the mass of seeds he’d spilled across the table. “I’ve got lots of feverfew, but I’m going to need one of those plants that helps you breathe better…”

“I’ve got it,” Holly said, grabbing the book of magic. The look of fear on the man’s face told her everything about his lack of faith in them - and his desperation.

She looked back at Dan quickly, saw his stark terror. “But I don’t know if I can make it in time…” 

“I’ve got it,” Holly said, with a new gravity in her voice as she took his wrist, reassuring him quietly. “Go with him; I’ll follow on your horse with the birds.”


	7. Sweat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly and Dan journey to the village of Luddsville, where they are tasked with rescuing the health of a painter’s beloved. The life or death situation stirs up feelings in Dan.

When Holly caught up on the back of horse (having rejected taking Barry for fear of making too big of a show), Feathers and Ross were in tow. She noticed only one thing: once the artist began talking he was not good at silencing himself. Holly was able to trot up behind the two of them with surprising ease thanks to that, and it took her very little time to realize that the king’s artist was in the middle of telling Dan about his woman.

“…And then we moved to Luddville to work on the king’s summer place. He pays well enough, but my wife’s really creative and she gets bored if she’s stuck doing the same thing for weeks. She’s been making hairpieces and ornaments for the queen while I finished up the royal portraits. Everything’s been going so well, she’s been so happy and now this…” Holly heard him sob a true sob, and winced at the sound.

“Hey man,” Dan said awkwardly, “trust me – we’ll do whatever we can to save her. I swear.” When Dan made promises it sounded like he was pledging his entire soul; Holly knew she had a partner in the struggle, however heavy it would be.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without her,” the artist admitted. 

“You won’t have to,” she said, causing both men to turn and glance back at her. “I promise,” she echoed Dan quietly. Relief shone in his eyes as he turned back in his saddle, gently urging the artist’s horse further up the trail.

The rest of the ride to Luddville was a short, rocky road through a copse of old pine trees and very tall, bare-branched aspens. It joined abruptly with the main road and lasted another mile, taking them directly to the mouth of the town just as nightfall threatened to set in. 

Luddsville was a tiny, dirt-road village several miles from Princeton. It mainly served as a support system for the king’s summer palace, thought the people of the town did barter and trade enough to support their own industry, and farmed the rich soil for the rest. Holly had seen thousands of villages like it in her journeys; a bakehouse still glowing with the ashes of the late evening sell; a tavern bustling with laughter and delicious cooking smells; a church, solemn and still, near the foot of the town; a grain store, a well; the merchant’s stalls and the homes and barns of the people. Children raced, bundled in capes and boots, through the snow-covered streets and adults lumbered at a calm pace from house to house, tavern to home. It reminded her so of her home coven in Fairsbrook in its ordinariness.

The artist stopped his horse abruptly before a small building near the foot of the village proper; she looked up to notice a dark stone store front with a sign hung above it illuminated in gold letters – _Hanson’s Portraiture._ She climbed off of the horse, grabbed the packet of seeds and herbs and tied it to her belt, then looped her horse’s reins to the hitch stationed at the front of the store. 

Dan was still tying up the artist’s horse when Hanson – she presumed that was his name now –quickly dismounted and then rushed to the door, hammering against it with his fists. “Jon!” He yelled. Silence. His eyes were moon-wide, frantic. After a few minutes the door swung open to reveal a ruddy-faced man with a rounded body, thick dark beard and thick, dark hair. He seemed alarmed to be greeted by so many unfamiliar faces at once but Hanson’s voice drew all of his attention. “Suzy?” Hanson asked.

“She’s alive,” Jon said quickly. “Barely. I’ve been trying to get some broth in her but she keeps spitting it up.” His gaze turned toward Holly and Dan, and she felt Dan’s arm automatically encircle her protectively. “Are those them?”

He nodded. “We have to be grateful,” he said. “Whatever they need, we have to do it.”

The other man shrugged and made way for them. “Gonna go home, now that you’re here. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Hanson mumbled.

Holly shook off Dan’s touch as she took in her surroundings, dimly lit by candles and lanterns; it seemed a typical shop, smelling of pigments, with hints of white canvas catching the moonlight. She saw Hanson take a small lantern and lead them toward a wooden staircase at the far left of the shop – it led upstairs, to a greatroom and two smaller ones. 

It smelled warmly of pine and the crackling fire in the main room. Holly gently shed the birds and let them hop about the small dining table near the hearth, and hung her cloak on the back of a pine chair. Dan automatically searched for a cauldron and started mixing wine and ground herbs from the sack she handed him. Holly found a series of tiny clay pots and started combining seeds and soil, water and earth; she did half of the chanting and growing and snipping as Dan brewed the potion beside her. They worked in companionable silence without comment.

But soon enough Holly’s eyes were on Hanson as he gently pressed open the door furthest to the right. The scents of the sickroom made Holly’s nose curl, but the tension and sorrow in Hanson’s posture stopped her from commenting on it. “Oh, Suzy,” he murmured. Holly was on her feet and beside him in an instant, in case the man swooned to find his bride gone.

In the bed lay a beautiful girl, her skin flushed scarlet, her dark hair spreading like seaweed across the white sea of her pillows. She slept restlessly, moaned softly, tossing against the sheets, and Holly then noticed two small grey scraps of fur curling protectively around her shoulders; cats, she realized, as one began to worriedly knead at his mistress’ shoulder.

She could guess the problem, from the color of the woman’s skin, her restless sleeping; the fever was eating her alive. Before she could act Dan entered the room. “I’ve got the wine. The guy’s got a bunch of lamb’s broth to throw the last of the feverfew and some heartmend into. Should I stew it?” 

“No, I’ll get to work,” she said. “And keep the fire burning. Give her the wine, that should start it.” The nervous tension of their new acquaintance dissolving under a sudden sense of urgency. 

He shook a little as he approached the bed. “Can you prop her head up?” he asked Arin. “It’s important she swallow it all.”

The man nodded and as Holly left the room she saw him reverently reach to cup her neck.

*** 

Holly wondered to herself as she steamed the broth and herbs together how Dan had learned to nurse with quiet efficiency. Her own training had come from her family, and her coven’s size required most of the women in it to know how to care for themselves and others. She plucked two clementine from their gunny sack and grated the rind until the broth turned bright orange, then carefully poured it into a mug.

“Here,” she told the birds, tossing the sectioned leftover bits of clementine onto the table, “stay quiet and be good.” She’d already regretted bringing them along, but didn’t trust them to stay with Roxie in isolation for the amount of time they’d need.

“Pumpkin please,” Ross said, pecking disconsolately at the pulp before him.

“Not now, Ross, please,” she sighed. The bird just laughed and hopped about Feather’s puffed-up body. 

As she entered the room Dan and Hanson had just finished feeding Suzy the wine; her breathing seemed more relaxed but sounded rather congested. Holly knew exactly what it would take to fix that, and approached with the mug of broth. 

“She kept it down,” said Hanson. “That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

“She should start feeling better right after this. And I mean right after this,” Holly warned. She sat down on the edge of the mattress, straw poking her thighs as she pressed the rim of the mug to the girls’s lips. She felt Dan’s fingers press against her own, guiding her as the liquid slipped down Suzy’s throat. 

Once the mug was empty Holly sat back and waited, hoped, for a positive sign. 

It came almost immediately. 

First, sweat began to bead Suzy’s skin. The more she sweated, the more her color reverted to its normal ivory shade. Her eyes shot open, she knifed upward in bed.

“You killed her!” cried Hanson, reaching to restrain his wife. But Suzy had grasped a discarded hankerchief, and into it she began to cough up phlegm, clearing what had befouled her lungs for months. 

Silence filled the room once it was done. Suzy sat sitting up, bewildered of expression, the dirty cloth balled up in her hand. Cautiously, Hanson reached for his wife’s face. “You feel…cool…”

Suzy’s eyes fixed on his face. Maybe it had been months since she’d looked at him that way. It was as if he were staring at an angel when she stroked his cheek with her clean hand. “Arin?” she whispered.

“Baby,” Arin said, wrapping his arms around her, rocking her.

A hand squeezed Holly’s shoulder and she glanced back. There was Dan, looking down at her, grinning. “Good job.”

“You too,” she echoed back. Another glance at the couple in the bed told her that privacy was definitely the order of the day. They moved in silent concert toward the door and went about making dinner.

*** 

“No, you can’t have my stew!” Dan complained to Feathers, pulling the dish out of the birds’ grip. The pigeon’s reply was a series of vicious pecks to his squirming fingers that demanded Holly’s intercession. 

Tossing a bit of bread off of the table, Holly laughed as Feathers flapped away from Dan, landing on the floor, immediately followed by Ross’ rolly-poly body. A quiet laugh passed between Dan and Holly as they watched the birds play.

Then, softly, came Dan’s voice. “You really were great back there.”

“All I did was feed her. You were the one who listened to Arin and stayed calm.”

Dan smiled, his fingers folding against the table. “We were really great, then. It kind of made me realize something. All of this could totally stop any day…it could be you or me in that bed, just as easily, couldn’t it?” Holly nodded, frowned. “Then I don’t want to waste any more of what we have left,” he reached for her hand. “I don’t have anything to give you now – not when it comes to money – but I’d like to try…I…” He bit his lip. “I’m really bad at this.”

“No you’re not. Keep going,” she begged.

He took a deep breath. “Have you ever been courted?” And, for all of the kissing and making out and gentle flirting Holly had done, no one had ever dared tried to marry a Unicorn Witch such as she, fledgling or not, so unusual were her powers. Holly shook her head.

His question caused her pulse to skip. “Would you be willing to be courted by me?”


	8. A Sackful of Ash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Holly return home, and Holly must figure out if she wants to be courted by Dan. When she learns something about his childhood, her heart decides.

Holly automatically shrunk back at the question. It was something she’d never expected to be asked, and something that he automatically expected to turn down. “We barely know each other,” she warned him.

He shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. Arin and Suzy knew each other since they were kids and they have this, like, amazing marriage where he’d climb mountains to save her life and basically did. My folks now – they knew each other for three minutes and went looking for a wizard to marry them. And their marriage was just as good.” He smiled. She raised an eyebrow. Hadn't he said he couldn't remember his childhood? What had unstuck his tongue? “And I look at you, and I know I feel the same way they all did. I feel like you could be my whole life. And instead of freaking me out, it just makes me happy. Happier than I’ve been in years.”

All of that warmth being focused on her, all of that tenderness. It was why she’d avoided being close to men for so long; she was afraid the sweetness of the moment would incinerate her, kill her on her feet. But oh, the yearning he brought to life in her glowed bright red in her soul; she wanted but knew not how to trust those feelings.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly. Could he accept all of the things that came with courting her? Deal with the fact that her powers might be stronger than his? 

Dan gently withdrew his hand from hers. “Take all the time you want,” he said, sounding a little hurt.

“Dan…” The bedroom door opened and Arin’s head peeked around the corner, cutting her off.

“Hey,” he said quietly, entering the great room. “She’s sleeping. A natural sleep, for the first time in months.” 

“Good,” said Holly. “Keep dosing her with the broth mixture in the cauldron,” she said. “She should be completely well in a week.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” Arin said. He rushed over to a small shelf next to the stove, where he upturned books until he discovered a small pile of silver. “It’s all we have in the world, but without the two of you I wouldn’t have one. Please, take it.”

Holly instantly shook her head. “No.”

“We did it because it was the decent thing to do,” Dan said. “Not for any other reason.”

Arin glanced at the money gathered tight in his fist. “Then at least stay the night. On my hospitality.”

“Easy street!” Ross tootled. 

Dan shrugged when Holly shot him a look. “I’m cool with it.”

“There are fur blankets in the chest of drawers over there – extra pillows too. And fatwood for the fire in the bin! Me and my lady’ll be fine.”

“If you’d like something to eat, we have stew…”

 

“I’ll be fine,” Arin said. “Thank you.” He repeated, backing through the door. 

She and Dan avoided each other as they prepped for bed. He took the floor; she stretched out in a chair. But hours passed before she slept, hours watching the halo of his curls turn shades of red in the firelight.

** 

They left at dawn to avoid the attention of the townspeople, and though Arin tried to convince them to stay beyond breakfast Holly knew they’d both be safer on the road. 

“You’re welcome to visit us any time,” Arin said. A brave invitation, she understood that much. She told him likewise, and truly meant it. 

The morning light was thin and much cooler than Holly recalled from the ride up. She and Dan kept pace with the birds, following the same trail, speaking sparingly. The awkwardness of the previous day lay between them, strong and too awkward to be picked that. All at once Dan stopped the horse in the middle of the road and stared at a dividing pathway. It led down a hill, into a copse of trees and disappeared into nothingness.

“What is it?” she asked him.

He swallowed hard. “Like looking at a ghost. I was too busy paying attention to Arin’s story when we passed it the first time…” he trailed off. “I need to go down there. Do you mind if we do?”

She nodded. It took a bit of maneuvering, but they got the horse down the slope. The underbrush grew heavier as they passed through, scraping at their arms and faces. A few feet down the path they thinned into a clearing.

The sight that greeted them was desolate. Skeletal remains of houses, burned black from some cataclysm, stuck out of the snow like gnarled fingers. Stone foundations remained; a well, frozen over and untouched for years. The trees to their immediate left were burned to black twigs. Dan dismounted and looked around, his expression unreadable.

“What happened here?” Holly asked.

“The worst thing that ever happened to me,” Dan admitted. “This was where I grew up.” He dismounted and led the horse toward a small building at the center of town. “This was my dad’s shop. We lived over it until I was about six. I came from a powerful family of Unicorn Wizards. Our whole town was filled with them. The church didn’t like them at all. There was a huge fight. I was little, I don’t really remember what about. That's what Brian told me. I don't...remember much of anything about what it was really like. I have little pictures in my head. The way my mother sang. My father's jokes. My sister's laugh. The way the top stair used to creak when I'd step on it." He winced. "The people from the next town over decided to get rid of us ‘heathens’.” He dismounted and took a step into the drifts, closer to the charred void of the cellar. “I found out that my mom put me down there. That’s what Brian says. I can’t remember anything but what it smelled like.” Holly didn’t need to ask what ‘it’ was. She dismounted, leaving to birds to perch on the saddle back, needing to be close to him for reasons she could not quite articulate. 

“What saved you?” she wondered, her hand resting lightly, gently, on his shoulder.

“Brian,” he said. “He was like, fifteen or something at the time, but he had skills even back then. He got there too late to save anyone but me. And he felt so bad about it he took me under his wing. I’ve been his apprentice ever since.” Tears came to his eyes. “I wish I…”

“Don’t,” she said, immediately, her other arm wrapping around his middle. “Don’t start thinking about what you could have done. It’ll haunt you.” This came dangerously close to exposing her own soft belly.

He moved in her arms; spun and buried his face in her shoulder. “I hate crying,” he said into her shoulder, sulky and sad.

“It’s okay,” she murmured, rubbing his shoulders. “I’m here.” It struck her like a lightning bolt from the sky. _I want to be here._ He was an enormous comfort to her, and she was an enormous comfort to him.

After a long time, he raised his head, and they locked gazes. “Dan,” she murmured.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing. Everything’s really right,” she said. “I don’t know how to do any of this. I’ve never even had a sweetheart really…”

His eyes widened slightly but he said nothing. 

“I’d love to be courted. If you haven’t changed your mind, I…”

He shook his head. “No. No, never. Holly,” he said weakly, burrowing his face against her shoulder again. “Holly, I lo-“

“Sappy!” complained Ross from her saddle. 

She became suddenly and mortifyingly aware of their staring and they parted, embarrassed. “Shush, you.” 

“Get a room, get a room!” 

Dan blushed. “Hey, enough back-talk.” Holly cooed to Ross, letting him hop up her arm to his perch on her shoulder. “You’re quiet, I like you,” he said to Feathers, who hopped from his shoulder to his elbow, to the top of his head. He stayed there as Dan gently helped Holly into the saddle and when he, too, joined her on the seat.

He took one last look around, as if to solidify his memory of the place, the world he had come from. Whatever he felt about the moment, it seemed to hold no candle to what he felt for Holly. In silence, he turned the horse back toward home.


	9. One Name Whispered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly and Dan embark on their courtship, which soon proves to be sexually frustrating for Holly.

The days that followed were filled with peace. Days were spent improving their spellwork and doing chores around the cabin; nights were spent on music and kissing.

Danny was getting pronouncedly better at it, Holly decided. They hadn’t progressed beyond doing more than hugging, kissing and holding hands, but it was pleasant, and a way for them to learn one another without putting too much pressure on their own anxieties. But as time progressed they grew less satisfied with over-the-clothing petting; her hands wandered down the neckline of his shirt to play with his chest hair and finally one fateful day he cupped one of her breasts through her blouse. 

But he would not dishonor her, or himself, by going further. “It has to be special,” he said. She agreed firmly, but these days every single day felt special enough to progress their relationship further.

It left Holly frustrated and at the mercy of her own wandering hands.

She was the one who suggested they try bundling, an idea he accepted readily since it meant close holding and talking in the candlelight. But this only seemed to add to Holly’s frustration, for now she could smell him on her skin and feel his warm body pressed against hers. Her fingers got much more exercise after that. 

Weeks passed. The snowpack began to melt down, and they could ride for greater distances on Barry and her honey-colored mare (she kept trying to figure out a name for it, but Holly ultimately wondered if the best name for her wouldn’t simply BE honey.). They often saw a rapidly-recovering Suzy and Arin for casual lunches. Holly had grown to adore the artistic, sweet-natured woman and continued to check in on her, worried that her health might not recover. 

She didn’t have the courage to tell Suzy about her life with Dan, though Suzy had likely guessed. When they were out of earshot they were kissing, after all. Spring was coming – she felt it in the eagerness of her own body and in Dan’s.

Finally, Holly woke up one morning to find the room empty, a little note from Dan on the pillow. He was mucking out the stalls and hammering a shingle back onto the house; he’d be right back in and breakfast was already on the table.

She could smell his hair, which was redolent of the sweetbriar soap she’d made the previous month. The smell of his skin was on the sheets, the vague taste of him on her tongue.

Her hands wandered.

Holly’s nipples were firm against her palm; her sex wet and pliant. A little time kneading her own flesh brought her to panting arousal. Her dressing gown rucked up against her body as she squirmed on the mattress. Her mind floundered away, imagining Dan’s fingers, long and gentle, over hers. The further she drifted into the fantasy the easier it was to pretend. They were lying in front of the fire, and he kissed her, and his hands were so gentle as they slipped between her thighs and stroked her clitoris, more and more firmly. 

“Dan,” she said in her fantasy as her orgasm neared. _”Dan!”_

But his voice came from close by. “What’s wrong?” 

He was standing on the ladder to the loft, and when she realized it Holly squeaked and slammed her thighs together, instantly turning beet red. Dan stood stock still on the ladder, his eyes squeezed shut. “SORRY I didn’t mean to scare you!” he blurted, his own skin the color of a cherry.

“Oh, it’s okay.” It was foolish to be inhibited at this point. She moaned softly. “Dan? Come here,” she begged. Dan followed her command reluctantly, slowly, and stood at the foot of his bed. “Touch me,” she requested softly, her own palms finding a slim thigh to brush. He shivered and leaned down to kiss her.

The embrace was hungry and needy but very tender. When it broke he buried his face in her hair. “I won’t…” 

She cradled his head against her neck. “I know,” she said softly.”Everything but that. And there’s so much _that_ out there.” Holly frankly didn’t want to run the risk of a six-month baby herself, at least not until Unicorn Wizard Brian had blessed their union. Their fingers, mouths and imaginations would receive a thorough workout instead. 

Dan nodded, and then carefully climbed onto the bed beside her. Cross-legged, he started to help her strip off his clothing – and once his skin was bare she led his hands to the hem of her gown and skimmed it over her head.

They admired each other in the late morning light with curious interest; though they’d both seen members of the opposite sex nude it was different to see the person you adore exposed for you own loving eyes. 

Dan’s hand come to rest on her shoulder and slid across and upward, brushing the back of her neck. "You're beautiful." The words were a reverent murmur. His fingers slipped gently through a loose skein of blue hair and brushed against her scalp.

She shook her head. "You're..."

"Bony and weird looking," he said, shook his head, seemed to want to laugh at his own rough assessment. 

She shook her own head, her hand resting against his chest, feeling sparse dark hair and warm, soft skin. "Beautiful," she said firmly. Then she pressed herself against him, body to body.

They both hissed at the unfamiliar contact, the new heat that spread through their limbs. The kisses were earnest now, and Holly’s fingers learned blindly the curves and edges of Dan’s body, the texture of his skin while he palmed her breasts, thumbs blindly stroking over the tips of each nipple.

Holly sighed at the feeling, leaned into his touch, and Dan let go of her breasts to turn them both sideways on the bed, so they could better explore each other without having to deal with criss-crossing their arms. 

Dan stroked an open palm down her belly, then pressed gently against her mons. After a solid minute of light stroking he admitted, “I don’t know what to do.”

“I thought you saw Brian do it,” she said.

“Watching’s like, super different from doing,” Dan insisted.

She turned around, lying between his outspread legs, her sex spread open and pointed toward the large looking glass beside his bed. “Follow what I do,” Holly suggested. Dan nodded, and they both bit back their nerves as she led his hands toward her vulva.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know, cliffhangers!


	10. A Sprinkle of Glitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Worth the wait?

His fingertips brushed lightly over her labia, the flesh parting under his spreading fingers. She glanced over her shoulder to assure herself that he liked what he felt; his expression was filled with curiosity and a note of concentration. When she leaned back and pecked his chin he tilted his head toward hers and gently pressed their mouths together. 

 

Dan broke the kiss and murmured that she felt soft. 

 

“I think I’m supposed to,” Holly said. All of her experience lay with her own body and its behaviors. 

 

“I love it,” Dan said. His petting gathered wetness up and allowed his middle finger to slide back and forth against her. She was still wet from her attempt at self-gratification and it didn’t take much to shorten her breath and put pink in her cheeks.

 

Holly carefully tugged Dan’s wrist until his fingertips found the small bud that seemed to contain the key to her passion. Her hips arched and she whined quietly as Dan touched it.

 

“Be gentle,” she said softly. He nodded. In the candle-lit mirror Holly could see her own sex growing visibly wetter, swelling softly – and his eyes, pale brown and curious. Her hand left his and it found his other pressed to the mattress. This she pressed to a breast, letting him feel her flesh soft and warm. “Make circles,” she encouraged.

 

Dan took direction beautifully and he followed her request exactly. His gentleness freed her to relax entirely, allowed her to close her eyes and lean trustingly against him. Always she’d watched Dan from afar and noted his thinness, his fragility, and worried about him getting hurt. But there was hidden strength within him, holding her there, the warmth of him seeping into her skin. Her hands tightened and she let him stoke fire to life within her.

 

The sensation climbed slowly, turned her limbs to liquid and caused her heart to throb in her chest. Dan didn’t stop, kept his touch gentle and even, and Holly’s excitement ramped up. A giddy feeling infused her blood as the pleasure grew intense and her hips rocked and circled with his stroking gesture. It reminded her of when she’d had too much wine at the last summer solstice celebration and spent the night singing and dancing wildly with the birds and her borrowed lute. What Dan was doing to her felt so much better, so much brighter – it had set her alight from within. She would never be the same after tonight. Never.

 

“Dan!” She begged softly.

 

“Let go,” he whispered against her shoulder. His fingers stroked faster to urge her forward.

 

“Ooh, I’m…” she murmured, her head tossing against his shoulder. She bit her bottom lip and groaned, arching into his touch, her pleasure snapping everything out of focus. It was different somehow, having him do it for her, sweeter and somehow stronger. Her body fell back into his grip and she fluttered and clenched around nothing, pleasure enveloping her mind and sinking her deep into the dark of her fulfillment.

 

Holly panted helplessly against Dan's chest for a minute, maybe more. When she returned back to her right mind Dan was stroking her inner thigh with his palm, his lips against the back of her neck. A look in the mirror reflected his eyes, pupils blown dark and big by what he’d seen, and the visible, lazy pulsing of her own sex as her orgasm wound down and ceased.

 

Weakly, she turned toward Dan and kissed his lips. She felt his hand drift up her back as she clung to him. "Thank you," she said. The only thing she wanted to do was return the favor, give him pleasure in response. Her fingers plucked her way down his chest, toward his cock. 

 

Ideas flitted through Holly's mind like sparks dancing from a fire. Her fingertips felt warm, slippery heat as she took him into her hand.

 

Dan’s fingers cupped over hers gently, and he led her up and down the length of his form. Holly asked, "Am I doing this right?" The shepherd hadn't complained but Dan might be more discerning.

 

"Yeah, I...please don't stop," he sighed. She squeezed him and he gasped, hips arching, sliding his phallus through her careful hold.

 

She kissed his rounded jawline and promised herself she wouldn't.

 

Holly concentrated on keeping her fingers tight about Dan’s cock, trying to figure out where he was most sensitive. The silky brush of his cock against her palm is a new sensation, the wetness, the firm texture of him. He grew thicker and longer and his eyes drifted closed on a litany of praise and pleasure. She leaned forward and kissed his neck, brought her other hand forth to gently rub his balls and, entirely curious, leaned forward and lapped a salty drop of clear liquid from the very tip of his dick.

 

The effect on Dan was immediate – he cried out bucked against her lips, shocking Holly. “Oh!” he whimpered, and she sat back on instinct, stroking and rubbing more quickly as his hips rose and moved of their own accord. “Almost…oh! Holly!” he blurted softly. A faint pulse of blue filled the air around their flushed faces but Holly didn't make much of it, so engrossed was she in touching him. Now he throbbed against her touch; now she watched as his cock spurted forth a long, thick stream of pale white cream. The flow of him spurted and gushed over her fist, onto the bedsheet, a few streaks lining her arm and part of her thigh. “Holly,” he sighed, sleepy-eyed. She let go of his blood-bright cock to rub his release into her skin, marveling at the silky-slippery texture.

 

Dan flopped onto his back and Holly quickly followed, squirming into his open arms. She lay peacefully recumbent against his chest, her palm splayed out against his ribs. Peace filled her mind and soul, the rightness of the moment adding to her joy.

 

Dan petted the back of her neck, murmuring, his voice very soft. They had been so quiet together, the delicacy of the moment too deep to be broached; there was a sweetness to it all, a sense of intimacy she'd never experienced. Then she felt his sudden gasp. "Holly?"

 

"Mmm?" 

 

"My hair's blue."

 

She popped open one eye and glanced at him. Indeed, what she'd seen as she brought him to climax hadn't been a trick of the eye - his hair was a soft shade of blue from each root to every tip. And he was visibly frightened by the change.

 

"That potion you tried must have been slow-acting. Shake it out," she said softly, and with confused eyes he raised his hands to his locks and dusted them out, the blue falling from and drizzling in sparks like glitter, stardust, to the pillows around him before disappearing. 

 

"How did we do that?" he whispered hoarsely. "I didn't...I mean when I'm alone I don't..."

 

Holly managed a sleepy shrug. "We're magic, sweetie. Maybe when we're together it's just stronger."

 

His hand came to rest against her back. "Yeah," he whispered, and kissed her forehead.

 

They had both begun drifting to sleep when a knock sounded at the door.


	11. One Small Secret

They flew apart automatically, instantaneously, when they heard that sound. Dan stuffed himself back into his pants with a reluctant moan while Holly donned her shift and tunic, trying desperately to push her hair down. Dan grabbed the discarded dagger from the floor and took the steps two at a time as he rushed toward the closed porthole. 

“Who is it?” he asked

“Daniel,” came a sonorous but terminally bored-sounding voice from the other side of the door, “why don’t you recognize our secret knock? It’s been fifteen years, for heaven’s sake.”

Dan immediately opened the door. Holly’s heart took a flying leap into her stomach and she nervously straightened her hair as the door flew open, admitting a man wearing a grey hood with a thick mustache. He pushed back the coat, and she immediately recognized the striking blue eyes of the famous Unicorn Wizard. “Wizard Brian,” she said, trying to curtsy and nearly tripping over her own feet.

“Fledgling Conrad,” he said dryly, offering a formal bow of his own. “I see your winter’s been pleasant.” He eyeballed her hair and her disheveled clothing. It was like he was boring holes through her flesh with his intense blue eyes.

Holly kept her flaming cheeks concealed, and couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief as the formality of the moment was shattered by Dan suddenly bear-hugging Brian. 

“I missed you so much, dude,” Dan grinned. A small smile brightened the wizard’s face, and he petted Dan’s forearm gently. 

“Likewise. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in telling me how things have gone?” 

Dan and Holly burst into animated, simultaneous chatter, both of them laughing at their outburst. Dan told him about how they’d saved Suzy Hanson’s life, and Holly told him that she’d continued her education and training alongside Dan. Brian took in their words with contemplative nods, making note of the cleanliness of the place and the hard work they’d obviously done.

“Much better than it is when I leave Dan alone,” he proclaimed, to Dan’s embarrassment. “I’ll give you both good marks, especially for saving that human’s life. But your training will only intensify from here on out; starting tomorrow I’ll begin your education properly.”

“That isn’t the only thing we have to tell you,” Dan said. And he reached over for Holly’s hand. “We have something to ask, Brian.”

Brian sighed, turning from the hearth to settle into his chair. “Must you do this now? I was planning on a cup of tea and a long nap.”

Dan bit his lip. “I…guess it could wait?” he asked Holly, but she shook her head. 

“Unicorn Wizard Brian, over the past winter I’ve spent a lot of time with Dan. We’ve come to admire and respect one another a lot. And….we love each other.”

Brian raised an eyebrow, his expression completely impassive. 

“We’d like to get married,” she continued. “As soon as possible. And if you’ll agree to allow it I promise we’ll continue our studies and stay close by.” Silence passed. “What do you say?”

“No.”

Holly’s heart sank, but Dan immediately protested, “Brian!”

“I shouldn’t be shocked that his happened,” Brian tutted. “Leaving you two out here in the wilderness for this long alone was just asking for trouble. I’m surprised you don’t already have a babe in the hearth.” 

Holly flushed, her color deepening even further as Dan stepped boldly forward. “I love her, Brian.” 

Holly went quiet. Dan hadn’t said it to her directly yet, but his proposal had surmised his feelings for her. She squeezed his fingers and he squeezed them gently back.

Brian stared at him coldly. “Of course you do. She’s the only woman you’ve ever been in close contact with.”

“It’s not about that. We make an amazing team. She’s so good to me, and I…I try my best to be good back to her. We have fun together, we’re good for each other…we just…fit. I know we need your blessing to get married, but if you don’t give it I can’t promise you that we won’t find someone to marry us without it.”

That was so shockingly brave that Holly’s jaw dropped. She raised an eyebrow and tried to press words from between her frozen lips but Dan stood firm beside her, his hand still in hers.

Brian stared at them, his dark gaze enough to make Holly squeeze Dan’s hand. “I’m going to need a trial period just to get used to this crap,” said Brian. “But if you’re determined I suppose I could think of some bride price tasks. Just to prove you’re ready to live on your own.”

“Thank you, Wizard Brian,” Holly said. 

“What kind of tasks?” Dan asked.

“You probably remember from Fledgling Shaw’s wedding. The task must be momentous and suitable to the age and power of the wizard and correspond with their burgeoning potential and OW!” Both lines of thought were immediately disrupted when Ross hopped onto the table and pecked at Brian’s hand. Holly immediately scolded him, but Brian’s shock went beyond simple insult at his injury.

“You!” the parrot squawked. 

“YOU!” Echoed back Brian.

“Please don’t tell me you know each other,” Dan begged.

“The story’s much more complicated than that,” Brian replied. 

“Jerk! Future-killer!” Ross yelled.

“Oh shut up,” Brian groaned, rubbing his eyes. “I suppose I should tell you the story. It started years ago, when Dan was only eleven. You were probably the same age. Is that when this bird found you?”

Holly automatically petted Ross’ head, confirming the bird as she nodded. Brian then sighed, preparing to continue his story while Ross stared back, even-gazed and surprisingly focused. “Once I traveled to a small village on the boarder of Secaucus. There, I found a troublesome boy who was supposed to study under me as an apprentice. Unfortunately, he was terrible at his studies; lazy, even insolent. When his inattention nearly caused a cauldron to explode during a namesaying ceremony I’d had enough. So I cursed the boy to remain in the form of a creature until he displayed enough maturity to be a worthy human being.

“What does that story have to do with Holly’s parrot? Where’s the boy now?”

Brian’s response was flippant. “You’re looking at him.”


	12. One Stolen Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brian's return means an adjustment for Holly and Dan - and forces them to seek each other out in furtive, stolen moments. Meanwhile, Brian thinks up a proper bride price contest for the both of them.

Silence filled up the space left behind by Brian’s confession. Holly just gaped at her bird friend, while Dan just stared at Holly’s reaction before looking back at Brian’s neutral expression.

“Dude, you turned a person into a parrot?! That’s…cool but super mean!” Dan said, earning him an elbow to the ribs from Holly. 

“I assure you both that my decision was completely necessary.” He eyeballed Ross, who had spread his wings and started bobbing his head in an act of aggression. “He was a menace to himself and everyone around him at the time. Though now I wonder if he’s learned his lesson.”

“Ross is a good bird!” piped the parrot.

“Ross was a pain in my nut,” Brian said. “Pardon my language, fledging Holly.”

“I understand.” She clucked her tongue at Ross and he hopped over; she cooed to him and petted his head. 

“So for the past eleven years Holly’s been raising somebody’s baby? You kind of made her a kidnapper there, Brian.”

“Oh, Ross was over the age of twenty when I turned him. If anything, I’ve extended his youth.” With that he poured hot water into his mug and stirred up the brew, then sat down to sip it. “Well, there isn’t much to talk about with the hour being so late. Go to bed. Separately. I will be joining you in a moment.”

Somewhat abashed, Holly returned Ross to a sleeping Feathers in the small cage Arin had given her as a thank-you gift. Then she climbed upstairs behind Dan. 

Once they were alone she pulled him close, for the physical comfort he promised and for the simple joy the act of touching his skin brought her. “What are we going to do?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” Dan admitted. He bent low and made a soft cooing noise. Roxie scampered out from her usual hiding place beneath his bed and he took her in his embrace, and then gently handed the dog over to Holly. “Here,” he said. “One of us deserves to have something soft and warm to cuddle with.”

She kissed his jaw. “I’m not going to quit fighting for us, I promise.”

“Me either, baby. I promise too.” With that, Dan slipped back into his own bed and Holly slid into hers with Tinkles.

The Pomeranian proved to be an excellent, cuddly companion. Her face buried in the dogs’ fur, she didn’t notice when Brian joined them in the loft until he climbed into bed with Dan.

Brian said, “consider me a moat filled with crocodiles. If either one of you tries to climb over me, you’ll get a butt full of teeth.”

Holly would’ve laughed, were this calamity not hers to live through.

*** 

Morning came early, and the only chipper person in the shack was Brian. He made them a large breakfast lavished with fresh sweetmeat; he’d apparently stopped on his way home to trade in town and had traded for bacon, eggs, coffee, tea, cheese, candy and jugs of fresh cream. The food had been dumped into the safety of the pantry on his return and Dan and Holly took delight in sorting it all into its proper place before eating like starving wolves. Dish washing was followed by lessons of an advanced nature; Brian drilled them in healing spells, transmogrification illusions and prestidigitation illusions. By the time she’d accidently made Dan float for an ungodly long time Brian ordered a break so he could make lunch.

Holly and Dan took the chance to grab some alone time – in the clever guise of exercising the animals. With the brisk air of the very early spring surrounding them, they let the birds fly and the horse, unicorn, and dog run wild…and ducked into the barn to make out in peace.

Frantic kissing led to desperate groping. When his hand disappeared up her skirt she gasped and bore down on his palm, and she pulled out of the kiss and watched his impassioned expression in the sunlight. “We’ll get caught,” she moaned. 

“I don’t care,” Dan admitted. She lurched back into his arms and bit down on his neck and his hips bucked. Had she hurt him in her eagerness? She murmured a soothing word and kissed the red spot she’d made on his flesh and he groaned; she soon realized how incorrect her guess had been as Dan rubbed his hard, thick cock against her belly through layers of cloth and fur and she blushed, shivering from more than the cold.

“You’ll wreck your hose,” she murmured, reaching under his cape and tunic for the lacings, allowing him just enough space to emerge. Dan shuddered as the cold air kissed his penis for just a second before she took it into her grip and began gently stroking him.

Just touching him caused an awful yearning to burn to life in Holly’s belly. All she needed was to feel Dan moving inside of her, something that she bitterly knew could not be at the moment.

“Nnn, my sweet,” he sighed into her hair. Then, abruptly, he stepped back from her. “Let me do something for you,” he murmured shyly. She tilted her head, puzzled. The frank eager hopefulness in his expression gave her enough faith in his inventiveness to let him position her against the bare wooden wall of the back stall. 

He reached up under her skit and pulled down her underhose. They locked eyes for a moment, and then he glanced again at her bared calves, his expression hinting that he was trying to undo some mystical puzzle that he could not see a solution to. Then he shrugged, tugged up her skirt and ducked under them.

The next sensation she felt was his lips brushing their way up her left thigh.

Holly jumped, accidentally banging her shoulder against the wall. Dan cupped her bare buttocks. “Are you okay?” he worried.

“Y-yes,” she breathed. What was he trying to do to her? His lips shifted to her right thigh, soft and sweet, climbing higher and higher…

Holly squeaked at his next motion, a curious kiss to her vulva.

“Dan!” She had no idea that such a thing could be accomplished, let alone that a man might desire it. 

“Let me?” It was a question, not a demand. 

“Are you sure?” What if she tasted bad? 

“You’re so pretty down here,” he sighed. “I’ve never seen…but I’ve heard…I want you to feel so good. Please?” 

“Yes…” she breathed. What person could resist such an impassioned request? He kissed her again and her willpower imploded.

His first explorations were very tentative and awkward, and Dan used his whole, stubbly face to part and hold her open, his nose and tongue delving through folds that were already wet from his kisses. Awkward and inexperienced or not, each touch had the desired effect. Holly’s knees pressed against the insides of Dan’s elbows, and she stuffed a knuckle into her mouth to muffle her moans. When he accidentally grazed her clitoris her whole body jolted forward-it was a light bulb moment for him, likely causing him to recall the pleasure he’d given her the night before, and a muffled ‘mhm!’ came from between her thighs as he shifted his mouth upward to kiss and focus on it exclusively. 

The sensation was glorious, until it slowly became painful. She hissed and reached for his head. “Do it gently,” she said. He gently stroked his tongue around instead of over the bit of flesh and she shivered and clung. “Dan!” she begged. His tongue was more frantic than skilled, and it kept wringing pangs of pure joy from her flesh regardless. When she tried to wriggle against it he braced her on his chin and kept her still.

A wet, slippery sound drew her attention momentarily. Holly glanced down. The right side of her skirt kept rising and falling wildly as Dan took his pleasure with desperate quickness.

The very notion that he was masturbating because he found he taste so dizzying made Holly shudder. Tension formed and built, connecting her nipples to her clitoris and down both thighs to the soles of her feet, and the tighter it got the more she shook. When Dan nudged her back against the wall she fell limply there and, braced by her own elbows and one of his hands, arched her back as the shimmering, twisting sensation of pleasure overtook her and wracked her form with sweet relief. 

Stars danced before her exhausted eyes. Below her Dan jerked forward and shivered, his moan against her labia making her knees weak. They stood frozen together for another moment or two before the position and the chill made it impossible.

Dan was dreamy-eyed when he emerged. Automatically, he helped her back into her tights and she helped him dust the straw from his legs and tuck away his softening prick.

She pecked his lips gently, tasting her own juices, finding them strangely pleasant. “How did you ever think that up?”

Dan flushed. “Arin told me he does it to Suzy.”

She should have guessed. “I wouldn’t mind doing it to you sometime.” 

He moaned at the idea. “Holding you to that one, baby.” He pointed to the bucket of water they’d drawn for Barry. “Guess we should wash up real quick.”

Dan had a point. The last thing she wanted was for Brian to be able to tell what they’d done. They rinsed their hands and faces, and then Dan rushed to the well and drew a bucket of fresh water; delivering it back, he pecked her head, taking Roxie and the birds back to the shack with him. 

Holly’s heart fluttered as she poured the water into Barry’s trough; she could’ve sworn the unicorn was silently judging her for her assignation. 

“Oh, don’t give me that look! If you were me, you would’ve done the exact same thing.”

The unicorn tossed his glittery rainbow-colored mane and snorted.

 

***

She arrived a few minutes later, convincingly soaked with snow and red-cheeked. Brian already had lunch on the table, and he remarked upon how healthy she looked. Dan couldn’t meet her eyes as they devoured the meal – but he also couldn’t stop smiling.

Once the dishes were cleared off the table, Brian rested his elbows against the table. “I don’t believe in beating around the bush, so I think I should be entirely frank with the both of you – coming up with a proper bride price wasn’t easy. But I think I’ve got two tasks you’re each optimally suited for.” Holly felt her full stomach knot up as worry filled her mind.

“Dan, you want to care for this woman as long as you both live – and unicorn wizards live a very long time. Therefore, your duty is to build a home for the both of you, using primarily the magic you’ve learned from me.” 

Dan’s jaw dropped, but Brian pressed on.

“And Holly, your animal magic is exemplary. Therefore, I want you to take you transmogrification powers to the next level and make a man out of Ross.” 

Holly stared at Brian, total shock staining her face. She’d turned human beings into animals before, but never the reverse. Moreover, such potions required a large amount of attention and a very steady hand. She wasn’t sure, for the first time in her life, that she could complete the task.

“That isn’t fair,” Dan blurted out suddenly.

Brian just gave them a grin. “And neither is marriage,” he said, settling the question and leaving his charges to contemplate their futures.


	13. One Mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly and Dan try to fulfill the terms of their bride price agreement, but has Brian pushed them too far?

Winter melted into spring so gradually that a busy Holly and Dan hardly noticed it. The road was soon clear enough to allow easy passage into town, and Brian bartered magic with the few tradsmen willing to help them prepare for the planting of their spring herb garden. Holly received a bundle of letters from Suzy and Arin, and they both promised to be there for the hopefully-inevitable wedding of Dan and Holly.

Life passed by at a muted blur as Holly worked her hardest to turn Ross into a human being. The parrot at turns adored being the center of attention and hated that her attempts had failed to garner the desired result. 

The trees had begun to bud and the grass turn green when she sat with a pile of herbs and her spellbook, meticulously going over the transmogrification spell for the millionth time that day. The house was quiet except for Feathers’ cooing; Brian had bribed him with a pile of birdseed and the pigeon was in an ecstasy of satisfaction. The head unicorn wizard was outside supervising Dan as he tried for the hundredth time to construct a home with his own magic, and Holly worried for the millionth time that Dan was working too hard, pushing himself too hard. She only hoped he wasn’t going to…

Then Ross cut off her thought by pecking at Holly's hand She pulled it back with a yelp, wincing and shaking it out. "That's no way to treat someone who's trying to help you, mister," she grumbled, rubbing the injured area to be sure he hadn’t cut it. 

"Get going!" Ross demanded. 

"You can't just make magic happen, Ross!" She stirred the pages of her spell book, searching for an easier out. 

"Sez you." the parrot complained.

She rolled her eyes, scanning the spell one more time. It felt fully ingrained in her mind by the time she pulled the cauldron from the fire.

The correct combination of herbs and incantation demanded every single square scrap of her attention. Holly stood back on her heels and eyeballed the brew as it bubbled for the requisite count of ten before ladling the brew into a mug. 

“I know this is the tenth time I’ve had you try something,” she said, “but I think I’ve got it this time.” The bird stared at her dubiously. “Please, Ross.”

There was an audible sniff as the bird stuck his tongue into the brew. Then a hum as he sat up, one claw clutching the mug. She watched anxiously for any sign of change, but once he hit bottom he burped.

And fell onto his back, burping.

She groaned and rubbed her brow, ready to throw in the towel. But then she noticed something as she gathered the mug.

Ross’ wings were glowing.

The transformation process was stunningly quick; wings shed their feathers and shot outward, becoming human arms; bellies slimmed and lengthened; claws became long human legs and feet. Then the well-loved face of her bird became a pair of bright blue eyes and a smirk. 

Holly stood still, blinking. Where once her parrot had been knelt a very naked man in his early twenties, with large ears and a sardonic expression. 

“Ross?” she murmured. “Can you say something?”

He sat up, blinked, and brushed back his hair. “Can I have some pants?”

She clutched her chest. “Oh God,” she sighed. A pair of Dan’s pants were found and rolled up and he donned it and one of Brian’s loose tunics and a pair of loose boots. “Come on,” She enthused. “Let’s go show Brian!”

“Hey, why do we have to run out all of a sudden? Maybe I want to use the chamber…” But Holly had Ross by the hand and was dragging him out to the small patch of land he and Dan had claimed for the future house. The two properties were connected by a very long dirt road that wound over a hill, and Holly marched Ross quickly through the much lighter spring snow as he struggled to keep on his feet. “Can we please go a little slower? I still don’t have my human legs!”

Holly paused to question him when they were suddenly rocked off their feet by a series of concussive impacts. The sound was coming from their property; when there was a space between the blows Holly got to her feet and grabbed Ross by the hand, breaking into a run.

They met Brian on the path, and he was carrying Dan in his arms. “Go back to the house,” he demanded, running up the path “Start taking out all of the medicinal herbs you can find.” She was paralyzed in place, staring wide-eyed at the picture before her. “Do it!” Brian yelled, panic temporary overwhelming him.

Over his shoulder, Holly could see a light dimly glowing; then her eyes widened. Behind him, where once an empty barren of grass and trees lay stood a beautiful home, with a stone chimney and a porch and even an outdoor privy. It was what she and Dan whispered about in the silence when Brian wasn’t around. “What happened?”, she asked, jogging to catch up.

Words came reluctantly. “He was struggling with the exercise. I pushed him – I told him that he wasn’t ready, that he didn’t want it. Maybe I said he didn’t want it hard enough.” Brian shook his head. “It lit a fire under him. Everything came together with a flick of his wrist; damnedest thing I ever saw. Never knew he had it in him.” Brian nodded toward the space behind them as they rushed away. "You’ve got your house. He finished the test.” He barely held back the emotion brewing in his eyes, “turned to me and said ‘now do you believe I love her?’ Then his nose started bleeding and he passed out cold.” 

Fear grasped Holly by the throat. “Hurry,” she demanded, turning around and rushing away. It took every effort for her to remain calm as she ran back to the house, abandoning Ross behind her, following Brian to his shack and its general safety.


	14. A Bitter Brew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly sits vigilant at Dan’s bedside and waits for him to awaken.

“What did you do to him?” 

Holly was kneeling beside the bed, gently pushing back Dan’s hair, running fingers over the planes of his cheeks and chest, murmuring occasionally. The whole time he remained quiet, unmoving under her touch. 

“Absolutely nothing,” Brian said, though he sounded incredibly nervous as he pounded herbs to a fine crush with his mortar and pestle. “In fact, I begged him to rest.”

Holly shot him a glare as he started steeping herbs in hot water. Damn Brian and his rules and morals and hectoring sense of traditionalism; if his hubris claimed Dan’s life she’d never forgive him.

As Brian approached with the brew, she made a series of tiny, comforting sounds, the same ones she normally made whenever Feathers injured himself. Then she took the mixture and propped Dan’s head up against one hand, then carefully poured the tea down his throat with the other, secretly glad he couldn’t taste the brew’s bitter dregs. 

When she passed the mug back to Brian, she met with his blue eyes and saw the worry in them. “You don’t understand, do you?” she asked, the question rhetorical. She knew Brian would answer it anyway.

“I’ve lived longer than both of you. I think I understand everything better than you do.”

She shook her head, eyes hot and desperate. “Have you ever been in love? Real, true love?” Her hands played with Dan’s dry, crackling curls as she watched Brian stare resolutely at the floor. “Because I love him. With every part of myself. And it doesn’t matter that we haven’t known one another for long, or that we’re young in years and short on experience. All I want to do is lie there right in his arms and watch his hair go grey. All I want is to be his wife. That doesn’t mean I’ll be a lesser wizard; it just means I’ll have someone to hold me up when things go wrong.”

But Brian’s expression remained nonplussed. “The herbs will have to work their way through him for an hour,” he said, sinking himself into the moment. She wondered if he’d ever felt guilt in his life. Her fingers tightened on Dan’s shoulder and as she ripped around to yell at him Ross’ voice cut through the air.

He was on the ground floor, shoveling bowls of mush up and placing them on the table. “I tried to make dinner,” he said. Then, he added, “mostly for me,” as if admitting he cared about them both was a hazard to his reputation. 

Suddenly reminded of Ross’ presence, she turned her eyes toward the younger man. He was apparently trying to remember how to eat food as a human being; his fingers flexed awkwardly against his spoon as he pulled mouthfuls of the food toward him.

Holly reacted robotically, climbed down the ladder and gently corrected his grip. “Now try,” she encouraged. “But go slowly.”

Ross rolled his eyes, said nothing and continued. Even he seemed to sense her subdued manner, and Holly was not jovial as she fed Roxie and Feathers their dinners. Eventually Brian pulled her toward the table.

“Eat,” he ordered. “It’s fine. The kid did a halfway decent job with the thing.” He then passed her a bowl filled with honey-and-butter dabbled mush.

She choked down as much of it as she could, even though it really was fairly palatable. Once it was empty she forced down another bowl, listening as Ross and Brian fought over a game of checkers before finally excusing herself to curl up beside Dan in the loft.

He hadn’t stirred since she’d been gone.

Something akin to desperation filled her heart. She pulled him to her chest and cried quietly, yearning for privacy, wanting to let her anguish out. 

“You can’t leave me, Dan. We were going to go all over the world helping people. We were going to show them that Unicorn Wizards are human and nothing to fear. And we were going to have a whole life and babies…you were going to give me a baby, a son with your eyes and your laugh. We were going to have a whole life together. You have no right to just LEAVE and let me alone when we were going to have a LIFE!” She slammed her hand down against his chest and pulled him tighter to her body. “Wake up!” she demanded.

But he wouldn’t. Tears flowed from her, hot and fast and desperate. When something soft and gentle brushed the back of her neck she assumed it was Roxie and tried to shoo away the touch.

And came in contact with a soft, gentle hand.

“Why are you crying?” he wondered, brushing his thumb against her cheekbone.

“Because,” she sniffled, “you were passed out for so long. Oh God, I thought I lost you,” she said.

“I’ll never go anywhere without you, Hol, you know that!”

She burrowed against his chest. “Do you remember anything about the house?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Finishing making it. And Brian said I did a good job but I’d worked so hard I faded out. Everything went white for awhile.” Then he added, “Then everything went dark. And I heard your voice in my ear, telling me to come home, that we had a life together. And I came home.”

Holly kissed his cheek. “Oh, I love you.”

“I love you too,” he whispered against her temple. “Oh so much. I promise I won’t leave you like that again.”

Alone in the darkness they lay together, undisturbed by Ross and Brian. The togetherness was enough for Holly. And, she reasoned with a smirk, they could wait until the morning to hear their good news.


	15. A Bushel of Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Holly prepares for their wedding

“Oh Holly, you look wonderful in blue!”

Holly nervously smoothed the half-finished dress down her stomach and glanced over her shoulder at Suzy. “Do you think so?” The younger woman had brought bolts of cloth with her up from town and they had spent much of the week helping Holly tailor it into a wedding dress. Holly had selected blue with small violet accents and trim, trying to best represent the colors a mature unicorn wizard was expected to wear. 

“Of course. Though I think Dan would like it best if it were on the floor.”

Holly’s ears burned at that proclamation. Completely recovered from her illness, Suzy was quite a different person from the sweating, silent girl in the bed. The actual person underneath the fever was bawdy, funny, and surprisingly strong. She had filled Holly’s ears with court gossip while preparing new washes and hair tonics for the ceremony; long hours were spent explaining her relationship with Arin, the happy secrets of marital communion. Most of that had rolled over Holly’s head as the day had worn on. “That’s…something….isn’t it lovely outside today?” Holly burbled.

“You’re going to have to get used to dirty talk, sweets,” Suzy said, returning to the dummy that held her own dress. Suzy had many rich gowns, all of them necessary to her job; the one she planned on wearing to the wedding was dark violet, light and breezy to accommodate the warming weather. Everything had turned green in the ensuing months; the trees were budding, the grass was growing, the heavy snow pack nearly entirely gone. 

“I’m trying to,” Holly said primly. “I just don’t want Dan to get embarrassed.” No one else she knew could alternate with simple ease between shy and bold. 

“If he spends enough time around Arin, he’ll forget what it’s like to be embarrassed in a hurry.”

Holly didn’t know how to react to that. She carefully bent, picked up the hem of the gown and lifted it over her head. “We’ll press this away with some rosemary so it’ll be fresh for the day.”

Suzy smiled, gave her a nod. “Do you have flowers?”

“There are bluebells coming up in the meadow between here and Brian’s place,” she said. “They should be in full bloom next week.” There had been a scant two months since Brian’s return and Dan and Holly’s official betrothal. Brian did not move slowly when tasked with planning an event. He’d already started inviting dignitaries in from the eastern coast the day after Dan awoke, instructing them to arrive for a holy feast at the Unicorn Wizard’s home. It was an invite few could resist, and the magnitude of it all was enough to make Holly blanch. 

“Enjoy the attention,” Suzy advised. “He’ll be keeping you too busy with babes soon enough.”

The very idea made Holly’s stomach fill with a thousand butterflies. But…. “I’m not planning on giving up wizarding any time soon,” she said. Or ever, she mentally corrected herself. Even after the babes came she and Dan would raise them together and pursue their studies in tandem. They’d already agreed to it. 

“You have a…unique chance,” remarked Suzy quietly. “I hope you take full advantage of it.”

“Do you and Arin have an understanding?” Holly couldn’t help but notice that there were no babes clinging to Suzy’s skirts, and she and Arin had been married for several years.

Suzy frowned. “We agreed that there would be no babes until Arin finishes the king’s portrait. It’s taking some time. The king is very picky.” She explained quickly, “There are teas you can take if you don’t want to…”

“I know,” Holly admitted. “I don’t need them yet.” She didn’t know if she’d ever need them. She wanted everything, in truth. Needed Dan, a babe and her birds, her magic.

“I can tell. Aren’t many who blush about marital relations when they’ve already been greengloved.”

“I think,” Holly said, reaching for her cloak, “it’s time to go and check on boys.”

Suzy grinned. “I’ll go saddle the horse.”

*** 

The two women completed the short ride from Holly and Dan’s new house to Brian’s shack in a short amount of time. Inside, they found dinner at the ready, tended over by Dan, who had Roxie yapping at his ankles. At the table Brian sat, being drawn by Arin in his charcoal sketchbook. 

“I don’t believe that you need two hours to paint me,” complained Brian. 

“Masterpieces take time.” Holly noted that he’d already sketched Dan and wondered what Arin was up to. “Hold the apple up.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to tell the world.” He held out his index finger, which bore a quiet Feathers, who preened. “The apple or the bird?”

“Birds mean foresight and apples mean health,” Holly said from the doorway, drawing Dan’s delighted grin. “It’s in the fourth edition of painting symbolism the western wizards released the other day.”

“Hello, fellas,” Suzy said, swinging into the room and picking up Roxie as she charged her feet. Arin abandoned his sketch to hug his wife, and the two of them blocked the doorway until Arin choose to sweep his wife away.

Brian scoffed. “Of course. I simply wanted one of you to tell me the true origin of it.”

“Didn’t sound like a question to me, Bri.” Dan’s voice was lofty, teasing, as he accepted a hug from Holly.

Brian scooped Feathers from his finger and placed the bird on the floor. “Dinner is ready. I’ll serve.”

“Where’s Ross?” Holly asked.

“He said something about ‘discovering the area,” Brian said.

“You let him go out alone?!” gaped Holly.

Ross then burst through the back door, nude and dripping wet. “Guys! The ice on the swimming hole melted!”

One long, awkward moment later, they sat together for dinner, fully dressed and completely ready to relax. Conversation was spirited, making perfect merriment that lead into music and dancing. At the end of the night, Holly was in Dan’s arms, smelling his familiar smell and feeling his arms around her.

“Would you like to…” he asked her hair.

“Go home?” she asked. That easy understanding was funny but important, a necessary building block for their relationship.

They both glanced at Brian, who was playing with his piano, the melody seguing into nothingness. Arin and Suzy had drifted to sit beside the fire, and Ross was watching them move, stuffing bites of apple into his mouth. 

He looked up when he saw them staring and shrugged. “The wedding’s in two weeks. I do expect you to be responsible.” 

They promised they would, and took Roxie and Holly’s horse on the long sunset ride home.

Their house was beautifully built; made of dark pine. That Dan had managed to do all of this with magic amazed her; it was bigger than Brian’s, sturdy, something that would last for decades. The great room was large, with a stone fireplace and a storage room; there were actual rooms instead of a loft upstairs, and two spare beds in case of guests. Holly admired it all again as she lit the torches and he locked the door, then together they stoked the fire.

“This will be nice in the fall,” she said, playing with his curls gently. “I’ll have fun tugging leaves out of your hair.”

“And out of your dress,” Dan said. 

The fire crackled and roared before them. Neither of them consciously made a move toward one another, but the embrace was long.

Time flowed in a long, endless wave. Holly seemed to blink and then find herself on her back, her arms around Dan’s slim, nude body and his lips pressed to hers. 

She was wet before his fingers found her and shuddered hard as he made further discovery of her form. His large thumb, rapidly across her clitoris and her entire body leapt against his touch, eyes held firmly shut, feeling every moment of the embrace. She stroked his bare skin in turn, unable to find proper purchase for her fingers. Still, he wouldn’t enter her; contented himself by canting her legs over his hips and sliding his cock lengthwise between her folds.

Holly flushed at the blatant carnality of the position but rocked her hips awkwardly up into his rhythm, trying to learn it. Dan tried to hold her together but she was untutored as he, writhing against him desperately, finding no quarter.

Dan took his hand away. What she felt from that moment on, from that very second forward, was nothing but his cock gently grinding against her flesh, his lips on her neck, his fingertips holding her loosely, gently.

She reached down to stroke herself and felt Dan slip toward her fingertips, the tip of him brushing against her, making her bite her lip, making her head fall back on a long, throaty moan. Everything he did sent fire burning through her. 

Her body convulsed a moment before he called her name and pulled away, coming in long, sticky waves over her belly.

Silence filled the room as she gasped in his arms. The world might have ended; she wouldn’t have minded. “Oh my God,” she heard him murmur. “The leaves.”

Holly cracked an eye open and let out a quiet gasp. There were perfect autumn leaves in his hair, all the shades of the rainbow. She gently plucked one from his mane and felt him bury his face against her neck. 

“We have to stop doing that,” he remarked.

“If I knew how to stop,” she said, “I’d’ve quit doing it a long time ago.”

He smiled into her neck, reached down to rub the semen he’d left on her body into her skin. “Two more weeks,” he reminded her.

“Mmm,” she said happily. “I can’t wait.”

And she really couldn’t. Whether they could hold out as long as they needed to wait was yet to be seen, but she hoped it would be worth it in the end.


	16. A Handful of Rice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's wedding time!

“Holly? Holly, honey! Wake up!”

It took Holly a few moments to realize where she was, what time it was – and why she’s dressed and not lying beside Dan in their house. Sitting up and yawning hugely, she gave her friend a grin. “I’m awake!”

It’d been a month since Suzy had arrived with Arin, preceding a wave of important dignitaries and well-known figures from Holly’s village and the high coven in New Brunswick. There was not room enough to hold the number of people who would witness their marriage and Holly’s stomach twisted over hard when she realized the import of what was about to happen to her.

“C’mon,” Suzy urged. She had already dressed in her crimson floor-length bridesmaid outfit, her dried flower crown and arm bracelet already in place. “We’ve poured a bath for you!”

Holly rolled out of bed, yawning. The tub was full and steaming at the opposite end of her borrowed bedroom when Suzy left, and she could smell honey and oatmeal as she approached and slowly submerged herself beneath the water. Holly neatly discarded her shift in a runsack behind her. It would be fine for the short journey. And, she remembered, flushing keenly, it would not be needed for the evening to come.

The bath was brief but thorough. Suzy had left her with several cakes of peppermint-scented soap she caressed her skin with it until it was some semblance of soft and warm. After lingering long enough to wash her hair, Holly dumped a fresh bucket of water over her head, cleaning her hair and body. She left the tub to be dumped out by the inn’s staff and rubbed herself dry with two soft cotton cloths. She was dressed in a silk undershift before she let Suzy come back into the room.

“You look wonderful!” Suzy declared, and pulled Holly’s dress and cloak from her wardrobe press. Holly took the compliment with a smile, hearing the other people who lived in the inn make small noises in the rooms beside and around hers. The establishment was in Eagleworth, a twenty-mile ride away from Brian’s place and, per the requirements of the coven, possessing of a straight path from there to home. This was supposed to represent the even, careful path a couple must take when deciding upon their marriage. She, Suzy, and Holly’s rainments for the honeymoon had stayed there overnight, and Holly smiled, realizing this would be the last time she ever spent a night alone. 

Suzy carefully lifted the heavy dress over Holly’s head, then slid it down her body. The laces were tied before Holly could react, and then Suzy helped her don the embroidered overcorset. Both were a shades of blue, the overcorset the same color as Holly’s pale eyes and the dress the same midnight shade all mature Unicorn Wizards were supposed to wear. Light stockings and royal blue slippers were added to the outfit soon after; it was too warm outside to possibly wear heavier underclothes . Which was why she and Dan had agreed upon a sunset wedding; the days were too hot to make so many people suffer.

Now dressed, Holly let Suzy brush out her hair, then add a flowered crown made of the first dried roses and larkspur of the spring. The only jewels she wore were a slim copper band Dan had bought as a belated engagement gift and a necklace. 

Very carefully Suzy enameled Holly, bringing out her eyes and her pretty cheeks. Holly wanted to squirm but feared disaster if she moved. Suzy sat back, happily satisfied with the results. “Forget wonderful. You are a miracle of modern enamling.”

“Thank you, I think,” Holly said with bemusement, eyeing the woman who stood in the glass before her. She didn’t recognize herself; there was no _Holly_ to be seen in this sophisticated half-grown woman eyeballing her. 

She was beautiful, almost. But Dan had loved he without lures, was likely to go on continuing to do so, fancy clothes or not. 

“The sun’s almost down.” Suzy squeezed Holly happily, just once. “I guess we should start out soon.”

“OK.” Holly tried to keep her knees from knocking together as she bent to pick up her clothing. Suzy had brought little to their quasi-party and it didn’t take them long to leave on Holly’s mare.

*** 

“How did you know Arin was the man you wanted to marry?” The road was long, though they were making good time, so the question kissed Holly’s tongue as they fought the setting sun to get home.

“I didn’t get the chance,” Suzy admitted ruefully. “We were betrothed as children by our parents. They knew each other well at court and thought a bond between the families would bring true love. Arin and I grew up together, so it was an easy transition to romance. It worked out for us. We’re among the lucky ones.”

Holly nodded thoughtfully. She tried to imagine how her life would have differed, if she’d had a betrothed, if even Unicorn Wizards believed in such a custom. Would she be on this road, inches from marriage to a man she loved? 

All thought died away as they reached the final stretch toward home in nearly full darkness. That changed quite suddenly; A row of lanterns lit the way to the homeplace, bright and glowing ,hanging by the path and keeping the road bright. Buntings made of the last of the royal blue silk Suzy had brought, draped among the trees. As they parted away from the road she saw them – her people, chanting softly, ringed around a large fire. Standing before the flame in ceremonial robes of deep black stood Brian, and beside him, nervous in his own tights, shirt and deep blue cloak, stood Dan. 

Holly made it to the end of the road before dismounting. Suzy took the horse’s reins and then handed Holly a bouquet of new spring flowers, which had been held by a dry-eyed and smirking Ross at the foot of the pathway.

Holly knew her role then, and did not falter. She stepped around the fire, clockwise, to the rhythm of the chanting. Three times around (representing the years of her life spent without Dan multiplied by ten score), she stopped before him and took his hand. 

Dan’s eyes were brimming in the firelight; he looked handsome, with his hair tied back, yet so scared. He was older than she on that early spring night but he seemed the innocent one as he took her hand and together, they faced Brian.

The chanting stopped, and Brian parted the jeweled cover of their sacred tome. The opening speech was about faith, love, and bonding. He spoke of the importance of a lasting bond between magical people. Holly blushed when he moved on to the fecundity of their union; that was the last thing she wanted any of them to think about - her fertility. Dan blushed in turn as Brian praised his growth as a wizard. Then, chanting, he poured piles of rosemary and thyme-infused sawdust into their hands – representative of the shedding of their old lives in this new union, and told them to throw it into the fire. It roared higher and hotter as they did so. Then Brian placed a cloth over their heads as they knelt.

“You look beautiful,” Dan whispered, squeezing her hand.

“You look handsome,” she whispered back. In the firelight the little green motes in his eyes popped out strongly, and caught the red in his curls. 

The cloth rose. They were asked to rise and pledged themselves in turn for life to the person standing before them. 

“I promise you my love for eternity.” Those were the words engraved on her heart, the ones she would remember when she was old and grey and smile to herself. Brian slid a ring of gold on Dan’s finger, and one on Holly’s. Then he gave them unto themselves and presented them as a unit. Holly and Daniel Avidan. 

Dan rubbed his thumb along her knuckles. He gently pulled her close and kissed her lips, a chaste caress compared to the others they’d shared. 

Holly’s ears buzzed. She was aware of Brian gently separating them so he could make the final pronouncement. 

Just like that, she was a married woman.

 

*** 

The floodgates of joy promptly swung open. Guests joined to pull long slab tables from near the cabin and set them near the fire, loading them with fine food until they groaned. There were juicy birds and braces of beef; carrots with honey, new spring peas boiled with mint and fresh-mashed potatoes. White bread and fresh butter, apples leftover from the winter and new-grown strawberries, wine and short drinks, fruit tarts and jumbles and fools and a fine white cake covered with sugar icing. Holly ate until her ribs ached, then danced like a foolish child. With friends and dignitaries, with Ross and Feathers and Roxie, even with stiff-kneed, formal Brian, his eyes slightly crinkled at the edges, a smile barely held back.

Somehow, as the flames died down and their guests drifted off to be alone in privacy, Holly made her way back to Dan. The musicians, handsomely paid for, were down to a single fiddler, playing for a slow-dancing Arin, Holly, Suzy, Ross and Dan.

“It was a nice ceremony,” Dan observed out of nowhere. His hair had begun to curl its way out of his ponytail and he looked tired, but she could feel the solid pressure of his body against hers as they swayed and knew, immediately, that their bed would not be for sleeping. 

“Beautiful,” She agreed. Her fingertips brushed along his jawline and Dan grinned up at her.

“So,” he coughed. Arin and Suzy had drifted away and the music stopped suddenly. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes,” Holly said. Her hands strayed to his hips, pressed there quietly.

“Yes?”

She nodded. “Take me home, Dan,” she requested. Then, against his earlobe, she added, “love me.”


	17. A Spray of Moonlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's still a wedding night if it's almost morning when it happens, isn't it?

The path to their home was more treacherous than before, the lanterns on the road guttering down to nothing as daybreak approached. Roxie and Feathers accompanied them on the long journey there; just as the sky began to lighten in the east they reached their front door and Dan fixed Holly’s mare to the post. 

She had the key in her hand, and made sure both dog and bird had water and food and were comfortable in their new stations in the living room. She lit the fire and several torches before Dan came to close the door behind him and made them quite alone.

Holly flushed, sitting down heavily on the overstuffed lounge seat. Dan, too, approached her quite shyly; his cheeks were red in the firelight.He was effortlessly handsome in the blue shirt she’d made him and a pair of black tights, and the navy-colored cloak with pale stars he shed to drape over the sofa. He settled beside her and watched the fire, their knees barely touching.

She, too aware of what their bodies were expected to do this evening, felt herself blush straight to the roots of her hair – which turned it crimson.

Dan turned his head and let out a yelp of surprise and Holly cursed, reaching to dust her hair back to the proper color. “Hol, are you scared?” 

“Yes, are you?”

“A little. It’s silly, I know,” he admitted. “We’ve gone part of the way before.”

They were, they both knew, far too old to be this afraid.

Holly reached cautiously for Dan’s splayed hand. His fingers enfolded hers slowly, and squeezed lightly. 

“Do you uh…” He swallowed hard, “want some wine?”

Holly nervously licked her lips and nodded. “Please.”

He found a small cask of it near the fire – where Brian had likely left it, he’d stocked their cellar before the ceremony as well. Dan uncorked it and then carefully poured it for her. 

She watched as he passed her the flagon and swigged it until she felt warm and slightly dizzy. Holly set her glass aside and watched Dan drink two more. She did not wish to come to their bed tipsy, but she could not blame him for requiring a steadying. Dan fascinated her even now. He could have his way with her if he so wished. That he did not simply throw her skirts over her head made her feel powerful, respected, and loved.

She moved toward his thigh and gently squeezed him, feeling spare muscle and fat, and the entire lot of Dan’s body tensed beneath her fingertips. 

They locked eyes; and though she saw his embarrassment and also a note of tenderness there. 

He set the wine glass away before turning toward her to draw Holly into a gentle kiss.

It was slow; seeping through her veins like honey, this heat he’d stoked in her. Dan’s fingers were soft and dry as the ghosted over her cheekbones and the back of her neck in praise. It deepened gradually, and Holly felt as if she were melting into stomach, his chest, pressing her aching breasts against him. Her hands found the tie binding his hair back and yanked it out, letting it fall in long, dark waves around his flushed cheeks and neck; Dan’s fingertips brushed the side of her breast and her hip. Finally, he pulled her into his lap and flush against him, then pushed his tongue into her mouth.

She could feel why he’d been so bold; he nearly pulsed against her ass as she twisted around to kiss him. Dan groaned wildly; she felt the vibration chase down to her sex instantly and gasped into his mouth.

He gently broke the kiss and sat back, gasping for air. “Wanna come upstairs?” he asked. 

She nodded, happily. He couldn’t help but smile back at her as he took her hand in his and pulled Holly to her feet. 

Then he scooped her up and carried her, bride-style, up the wide stone staircase he’d made, trailing squawking animals to their private chamber.

 

*** 

 

Dan kicked the door shut behind him, letting out a soft huff as he let Holly slip back to her feet. She spared a glance for their master chamber; it was moonlit enough for her to find and light the array of candles Brian had left them. As she did so, Dan pulled back the sheets and she realized he’d done the requisite task of a mother – spreading herbs and flowers between the sheets, to ensure them a sweet night.

She bit her lip, even more embarrassed. Did they all have to know that she and Dan were about to make love? 

Holly ignored the thought. The room glowed brightly, outlining her form as she drifted toward Dan. His eyes brimmed with joy and curiosity as he took both of her hands and they sat together at the edge of the bed. 

The kisses were soft and sweet as he sidled closer and reached for the laces of her corset.

His thin fingers were more nimble than hers, which stumbled over the laces of his tunic until it hung open. Dan shrugged out of the shirt and left her half unlaced, allowing Holly to slip out of the corset and slide it to the floor.

Then Dan’s large hands found the hem of her dress and tugged it and her shift upward. Obediently, Holly raised her arms, allowing him to strip her, and then lifted it off and away.

He set it aside with respect on the bedstand, knowing that the costume might one day be of value to their daughter - unborn, perhaps to be concieved this night. Or a son. She despeately wanted to give him a son..but she was getting ahead of herself. Holly was aware of her slippers, still perched on her toes as she bent to help Dan slide out of his hose and he stripped them down eagerly with his boots. Holly then she sat back, naked

She studied him frankly, this body she’d seen numerous times completely naked, sometimes in the gaudy glow of sunlight and sometimes by the roar of a fire. His eyes too, coasted over her body, memories and promise flickering there, delighting her, making her skin prickle, enchanting her easily.

“So beautiful,” he muttered, taking her hand and gently tugging them down until they rested in bed. “My wife,” he added, pressing their bodies together from knee to head. “My wife.”

Holly’s arms found Dan’s long body as they kissed, flesh to bare flesh, her skin prickling and her body growing hot and wet under his large palms. His fingertips brushed over the sides of her breasts before discovering her skin, nipples puckering before his fingers found them.

Holly, too, found Dan’s nipples and stroked them, surprised at his sudden intake of breath the sensation of his cock quivering against her inner thigh, growing larger as he palmed her breasts and kissed her, desperately as she kissed him.

She broke away, her teeth testing the thickness of his neck as his attention drew toward plucking and rolling those nipples. Every touch felt like a bolt of lightning streaking downward from her breast to the aching heat between her legs. His lips darted everywhere and she gasped and heaved, trying to get herself closer to his touch. They finally came to rest upon her collarbone and kissed downward until she landed on her back with a gasp and he eagerly took a nipple between his lips and sucked gently.

Even this familiar act felt different, every pull drawing the heat between her legs to a tighter, higher acme than the one before it. Dan’s tongue swirled and lapped frantically, the different forms of stimulation making Holly writhe and sob and reach over the bony planes of his body to discover soft skin and contracting muscles.

He gasped and whined and she played with his chest hair and tickled her way down his sides, cupping his buttocks. Dan grunted, arching his back, smearing the inside of her thigh with a silky liquid, and when she stroked his cock he bit out a cry and pulled away, distracting himself with her chest. Dan lingered stubbornly at her breasts until she pulled him further down her body with a hungry sob.

He parted her thighs then, rolling her onto her back. Dan’s fingers found her labia and spread it apart, and her body knew their gentleness, tuning to gooseflesh, soft and open for him. The tip of Dan’s thumb rotated again and again on her clit, until she felt too swollen and sensitive to do anything but plant her heels on the bed and hunch. His lips and tongue replaced his thumb and she shattered utterly, her own hands finding her nipples to pluck as she burned and crested.

Dan didn’t stop. “Gimmie some more, baby,” he urged softly, and she whined but tried to obey, her knees quivering in his palms as she looked down. Dan’s face was a mask of ecstasy and his lips shone with her release; his every kiss to her labia was combined with a murmured exhalation of joy, of praise. His love of her body and his pride in getting her off enhanced the next orgasm, which followed quickly behind with rapid flicks of his newly-skillful tongue. She called out, head thrashing into the soft new sheets, spun off into a daze of wild, contracting heat. 

When she returned to her right mind, Holly felt the mattress shift beneath them in rhythm and knew Dan was rutting against the bed. That wasn’t right, she thought dazedly. He didn’t have to do that anymore. He belonged with her, inside of her. She pulled his head up by the hair and mumbled a ‘please’ while trying to sprawl her limbs out.

Dan crawled up, dotting her over with kisses, murmuring an apology as he nestled full-body between her legs. She reached down instantly to stroke him.

Dan’s hands fluttered desperately against the bedspread and he gently seized her wrist. “No, please,” Dan begged. “You can touch me later!” He reached down to slip the tip of himself through silky-soft wetness, just as he had when they’d celebrated their engagement. Holly’s eyes shot up toward Dan’s as he hesitated.

“Do it,” she begged, hands scrambling for purchase on his behind. 

“But…” Dan said.

“DO IT,” she demanded, and clawed at his ass for good measure. Dan whined and thrust forward.

The sensation made Holly go completely still. A second of initial pressure and discomfort had given way to fullness and heat. It was so _strange_ , so compelling. Her eyes searched Dan’s face, only to see his own wide-eyed shock. 

“Should I stop?” he whimpered.

She shook her head. “I want more…all of you…please?”

He shivered, eyes falling closed. “Oh my God, Holly.” He braced himself on an elbow and sank his hips forward, slipping into her by inches, until she felt the texture of his pubic hair against her labia, tickling her clitoris,

Dan’s reaction was obvious; he panted, red-faced, falling forward into her arms, grinding against the wetness surrounding him. “Ahh Holly,” he groaned, burying his face in her neck. “Don’t wanna..hurt you…feels so good…” He kissed the side of her neck, up and down, trying desperately to prolong the act. But he couldn’t resist the lure of friction and slipped back, giving her a velvet-soft stroke.

“I’m fine,” she murmured, kissing his neck and ears. “Feels so full,” she admitted, cheeks tinged pink. Holly cupped Dan’s buttocks in her hand, holding it tightly as he rocked gently into and out of her. She bit her bottom lip, stared into his face and tried to figure out the counter rhythm. 

Dan lasted through a few minutes of this before he broke, falling into her arms with a moan. “I can’t…I…” he groaned and sped up, and Holly reared into Dan’s stroke, trying awkwardly to match his rhythm. The hot friction felt so good, too good, and she needed desperately to help him reach his climax.

Holly reached between them, found her clit, stroked herself in time to Dan’s movements. He realized what she was doing, recognized the frantic movement of her hand as if it were his own and shivered. He lost his coordination. The thrusting became desperate. 

“Dan!” she called, as the feeling peaked, as for the first time in her life she came with something buried inside of her. “Dan, please!”

Dan’s eyes snapped closed and he cried out, hips moving faster, harder, until she felt him widen against her walls and pulse.

“Holly!” He gathered her up in his arms and thrust quick and hard through her contractions. “Oh, HOLLY!” Now he was screaming, and then she felt a quick, sharp series of pulses, followed by a soothing flood of warmth.

She could feel him everywhere, she thought inanely, and it felt so good, so incredibly good. Dan kissed her sloppily as her body tried to milk his empty, until they were nothing but a pile of weak, limp bones lying in the bed, trying to kiss each other back to the real world. “Oh my God my baby. My wifey. Oh my god,” he was babbling, kissing her everywhere. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

She rested with him deep inside of her, shrinking slowly, and nuzzled his cheek. Her kiss told him what she was too tired to say.

That she loved him, too.


	18. Warm Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly and Dan learn to negotiate married life during their honeymoon.

Sunlight prodded Holly’s eyes open the next morning, golden-white and insistent. She tried to avoid the glare by rolling away, and instead tumbled right into Dan’s sprawled body.

She yelped softly. She hadn’t expected to feel his entire bare form beside hers, had for just one second managed to forget she was a married woman. But her body – aching as it did at the hips, as it did in a deeply hidden but suddenly ubersensitive part of her form – reminded her quickly of her status as Missus Daniel Avidan.

So did the smile that greeted her as Dan slowly opened his eyes and lazily drifted toward her, crossing inches of warm sheets to tangle his sleepy legs around her waist and tuck his long arms around her body.

“S’early baby. Go back to sleep.”

Holly followed her body’s instincts and did as he bade.

 

** 

 

When she next rose the sun was high and warm at the roof of their cottage, and her complaining stomach and bladder finally drew her from the safety of the bed. 

She only noticed after emptying the chamber pot that her husband was not where she had left him. “Dan?” she called.

“Downstairs!” he yelled. “I’m making us something to eat.”

There was something to be said for a man who was good at anticipating ones’ wishes. Holly decided to draw them a bath – cheating by using magic instead of hauling up water and heating it – then putting a secondary spell on it to keep it warm. She dumped in several bath treatments, and soon the entire room smelled like freshly-picked herbs.

Dan arrived soon after with fresh porridge and hunks of cheese and bread, along with some leftover cake from the ceremony.

“Brian says he hopes you’re well,” Dan blushed. Holly was suddenly very glad to have slept in as Dan parceled out their food. There were honeycombs, and she squeezed it out upon her bread 

“I’m happy,” she said, “thrilled,” she clarified, as Dan spread butter on her honeyed bread and she tore into it lustily. 

He smiled. “Me too.”

The meal passed quickly, and soon they were face to face with the warm bath. Holly had nothing to strip away, and Dan’s loose shirt and hose found their home on the floor quickly. Holly slipped into the tub by inches and moaned as the warm water soothed her muscles; Dan fairly dove in, surfacing to wrap slippery arms around her.

They traded kisses, little nibbling sips as they swam back and forth under the warm water. Her fingertips stroked his chest hair and settled at the nape of his neck. Dan’s lips were far more inventive and kissed their way down her throat and between her breasts. Holly floated there, letting him

“We aren’t washing up, Dan,” she pointed out.

He laughed, kissed her flesh. “You’d rather take a bath than make out?” he asked, eyebrow rising. 

“Nooo,” she laughed. “Why would I ever…” she paused to let him kiss her and glanced down to meet his eyes, and Dan was nestled against her cleavage, his eyes upturned and his grin huge. “What are you planning?” 

He reached for a cake of soap from the stool beside the tub. “Sit back. I have an idea.”

Holly sighed expectantly but settled back, Letting Dan explore her gently. Soon she sat back, shivering. He’d taken minutes to soap her breasts, taking all the time in the world to touch her now that their libidos weren’t rushing things along. He was tickling her, actually, spreading a cloak of goosebumps along the top of her body, making Holly writhe and moan and even chuckle as the anxious tickly feeling turned to arousal. 

Dan leaned forward, taking the tip of a nipple between his lips and tickling it lightly with the tip of his tongue. She wriggled between his arms, sitting on his folded knees and groaning softly as the teasing turned to full-on licking. 

He was growing ever more clever in knowing her body’s responses; a flush stained Holly’s breast as he took that knowledge and played with her nipple, moving left to right. His soapy fingers squirmed down her belly until they finally rested between her legs. Those parted against his slippery thighs, his teasing touch making her still and quiet.

“I’m never, ever going to get over you.” He sounded almost frustrated as he cupped her face. He tried caressing her and kissing her at the same time, almost managed to pull it off. He buried his face in her neck while she patted her way down his body, trying to find his cock without his help. 

Holly closed her eyes; the sensations were strong, and all of them. Her fingers found his cock and started to rhythmically tease it to the unconscious motion of his hips. Dan grew abruptly bolder, fingers shifting from her clit toward her entrance…

….And that was enough, the soreness taking a turn from pleasant to the mildly painful. She shivered and squirmed back against the tub.

Dan stopped instantly. “Are you too sore?” she nodded. Dan kissed her, made a soft fussing sound as his fingers circled out of her entranceway and back toward her clitoris. “You should’ve told me.”

“I didn’t think you would…” she paused, involuntarily squeezing him tighter as he worked his fingers against her clit. And by now he knew her so well that her hips and ass danced to his touch without further encouragement. 

Holly’s own hand worked Dan’s cock, slippery-hard in her hand, remembering the rhythm of the night before. He kissed her neck, beginning to pant. “Faster!” he begged, and soon she was moving in a rhythm that matched the motion of his fingers. It was perfect for a moment, but she wanted him to go faster than he dared.

“Dan,” she whined.

“Shhh,” he mumbled into her neck. “So close…your little button’s so swollen…”

She choked on a laugh. In fact, started laughing so hard that she trapped him between her calves. Dan was too happy to have his dick in his wife’s hand to complain. “What do you call it?”

“A Clitoris!” she gasped. “That’s the right term!” But she was far too far gone to even have a coherent thought at this point: her heels smacking the bottom of the tub rhythmically, Holly hunched up into Dan’s hand hard, her inner muscles pulling on nothing but pleasure coating every single muscle, neuron and fiber of her being.

“Oh my God,” Dan murmured, watching her go over. She floated back to herself and reached for his still-hard, bobbing cock. “aww yes, Holly,” he sighed. One of his hands rose up to his lips and she watched him lick his fingers clean as she jerked his cock. She wondered if he could even taste her over the soap, but the idea was enough to make him quiver like a tuning fork in Holly’s grip. She moved her hand more quickly, hoping to inspire him.

That seemed to do the trick; he could barely keep his eyes open. “Can I….” Dan mumbled.

She kissed his jawline. The gasping was becoming more and more regular. His cock trembled as she stroked more firmly, more quickly. “Mmm?”

“Can I come on your belly? Please?”

Holly just smiled and stroked Dan until his legs turned to twin rocks against her thighs and he thrust desperately through her open fist. Most of his cream jetted into the bath, but a few stray strands landed upon her stomach. Holly let him subside against her before gently wiping her skin clean.

He drifted off against her touch, finally waking to nuzzle her cheek. Then Dan kissed her forehead. “So,” he said brightly, “what do you want to do for the rest of the day?”

** 

Holly’s answer was ‘learn a couple of spells – in this case a conjuring spell for cordwood. “Wouldn’t you rather learn how to ride a dragon?”

“I’d rather not die,” she said lightly, kissing his cheek when he pouted. An hour of work resulted in some oddly-shaped wood. They could always come back to the lesson later, she reasoned, and ended up taking him out for a walk in the woods. 

Evening shades of twilight painted everything pale purple when they returned home. Birds and dogs needed to be fed, and so did they. Dan did the cooking while Holly did the prepping, then they ate in the cozy comfort of the kitchen with their pets.

By then, Holly was feeling restless; not just restless, in need. The aching that had accompanied the early part of her waking had dissipated; all she craved was a deeper touch from her husband. 

When the dishes were done she reached for his hand. “Come,” she said, drawing him to their bedroom. “I have an idea…”


	19. A Long Loud Scream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly's ideas are the best ideas (and the story will regrow a plot in the next chapter).

It was candle-dark inside of their small chamber, and Dan stumbled over the side of the bed as Holly uprighted him with a chuckle, re-lighting candles as she moved through the room. 

She turned to see Dan carefully stripping his own clothing away, tying to keep his eyes on her. Holly’s skirt joined his tights on the floor, and when she reached to pull her tunic off she felt Dan’s hands at her waist. 

He murmured something indistinct about softness as he tugged the clothing up over her head and away. She vaguely heard the fabric hit the floor before he wrapped his arms around her body, tugging their bodies close together.  
“And how does milady wish to be pleasured this eve?” Dan asked. A smile tugged the corner of his mouth, making his eyes brighten up as he pulled her a little closer.

“Actually..” She teased, kissing his lips as they reclined there.

“Hmm?” he said, nudging her shoulder. 

“I wanted to be the one pleasuring you this time.”

“O…kay?” he murmured. She rolled him onto his back and he let out a squawk of surprise as she straddled his hips. He automatically reached for her breasts but she swatted his hand away.

“No,” she said firmly, and Dan sat back, seemingly confused by her aggression. She cupped his face and looked into his eyes, her own falling closed as she kissed him quiet. 

Dan lay still beneath her; not moving an inch as she kissed his face, his mouth, the side of his neck. He let out a panting gasp when Holly let go of his mouth only to eagerly dive back in.

Dan’s hands scrambled along the sheets, clearly yearning to touch something, but Holly’s own hands stayed pressed flat to the wide, thin expanse of his own pectoral muscles. She wouldn’t rush this feast.

Pulling back from his lips again, her fingers spread out along his ribcage, brushing the tip of a nipple and then down a rib, feeling the silky texture of him. Dan’s cheeks turned red as she explored him gently. 

For Holly, an array of sensations sprang to life under her hands. He was warm, soft-skinned, hairy, rough, shivering and needy. He was a million things at once, and she became frantic to know him in ways that she had never done before. 

When her lips found a nipple he sobbed and heaved under her, fingers tangled up in her hair. She ignored the tugging to switch nipples, tongue tickling back and forth against his pebbled flesh. 

“Holly?” he murmured, a little smile teasing the corner of his mouth.

She pulled his hand away from her hair, wriggling until his cock rubbed against the soft flesh of his belly. “Husband?” she said, just to have the pleasure of calling him that.

He grinned. “ This is really nice but uh…” Dan bucked up, rubbing himself against her skin, leaving behind a trail of slickness, “I kind of need to get inside you soon.”

Holly frowned. “You said I could touch you later,” she said. “Now is later,” she added practically, and puffed a bit of cool air against his nipple.

Dan bit his bottom lip and writhed. “Please?” He begged, his face half-hidden by whorls of hair. “May I?”

“Hmm…” Holly said. She sucked his other nipple and he groaned. “I’m not really sure you’re ready.” She sat back, legs spread but hooked up and over his thighs, letting his cock spring free. Both of her hands skated down her stomach, then up. She fondled her own breasts and felt warm tingles spread across her sensitive skin. Dan whined, stared up at her, watched her circle and pluck her nipples, skin going to gooseflesh. Thrills raced through her with every touch, and her hips began to move involuntarily. One hand slipped between her legs and started to massage, drawing cries from between her lips.

“What would you do if you could touch them?”

He stared. “I’d…I’d Lick them. Suck them.” 

“And here?” Her hands abandoned her breasts to join the other between her legs. She couldn’t believe she was doing this, that she had gained the courage to put herself on display for him, but if Dan missed his shy, modest wife he wasn’t complaining. He watched her so intently, so impassionedly that she wondered if she’d ever remember what loneliness felt like.

His eyes turned wicked. “Have you sit on my face. Make you scream.”

She shuddered against her own teasing fingers. Resisting the temptation of her own touch, she realized she didn’t want to come like that. Holly scooted off Dan’s body, had to rearrange herself until she was eye-level with his penis. “Maybe after,” she mumbled. He looked beautiful to her, hard and warm and slippery, etched in shades of pink and purple.

Her mouth watered for him. Why should she deny herself his beauty? He let out a series of soft grunts as she kissed along the underside of his shaft; toward the head, which she laved gently. Time passed and he lasted somehow, head thrown all the way back, hands dug deep into the soft sheets. Holly took him into her mouth by inches, sucking and sliding, lasciviously trying to wiggle her tongue without gagging, lost in the simple pleasure his flesh gave her, feeling his muscles leap and strain under her hands. When she glanced up his mouth had dropped open. She worried that she wasn’t very good at pleasing him with her mouth until she heard an indrawn, desperate breath from Dan.

“Holly!” he choked out. “HOL-LY!” when she teased a sensitive point just under the head of his penis. She kissed his cock lovingly just to feel him twitch between her lips. Dan cried out again, tried to lurch toward her but she sat back and stroked him with her hands. “Noo, I can’t!” he panted. “I’m gonna come…wanna come in you..please?”

She couldn’t, either. It took effort to climb back up, to circle Dan’s cock with her slippery fingertips and positioned him. Suzy had blushingly described this position to Holly once, and with her friend’s instructions flashing through her mind the only thing Holly wanted to do was try it. 

There wasn’t much room for her to tease him; she simply slipped the tip of him through wet, open folds and then sank down. 

A slight stretching sensation greeted Holly as they united. Dan’s whine, muffled by the pillow, pierced her ear. She smiled at his vocal reactions; they were as arousing as the fingertip suddenly strumming her clit.

That fingertip tried to hasten the pace of her hips, but she wouldn’t have it. “No, Dan. Slow,” she murmured, feeling his chest heave under her hands as she chanted the word. “Slow.”

She lifted and sank, using her thigh muscles and his legs for leverage. Dan cursed. She stared at the cords of his neck as they popped out, and she reached for his hand. It was fine to tease a man, until that teasing turned to melting pleasure-pain in her own sex that drove her hard and quick up and down the length of him. Dan held on to her, tight and desperate.

She sped up gradually, pleasure pouring through her entire being, stiffening her nipples, tickling through her belly, making her clit throb under two more of his fingers. When Dan made a series of experimental thrusts up into her she gasped and instinctively clasped him tight. That broke his restraint - Dan bounced her on his cock and she let out a squeal, falling forward, sloppily kissing him.

“Oh baby, baby, Holly – fuck! Holly, please come with me,” he muttered. His fingertip stroking rapid circles around her clitoris. “C’mon,” he chanted softly, head falling back, shoulders hunched. She felt him throb inside of her and her body answered, pins-and needles signaling her impending orgasm. She hunched hard forward into his fingertips , losing her breath as he rapidly thrust into her, freezing and jouncing as the pleasure crested and lit every muscle of her body. He screamed something against the base of her throat and deep inside of her the throbbing joined, twinned, and left her a panting mess.

Dan’s kisses were sweet afterwards; Holly was exhausted, exhausted enough to let him roll her off his body and cuddle her happily. “I’m um…sorry I screamed,” he admitted. “I don’t know why I do that.”

“I like it,” she admitted.

He smiled against her neck. “I love everything you do,” he sighed.

She wanted to joke that he had to – she was his wife, after all – but she squeezed him around the waist instead. He felt so good in her arms, like magic, and she didn’t want to break the spell he’d woven around her for anything.


	20. One Change in Course

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Holly’s honeymoon is interrupted by Brian.

Holly woke that morning to the sound of Dan snoring against the back of her neck, one hand cupping her breast and his half-hard cock pressed against her butt. 

She would have to get used to this sensation. Used to it, but never in a way that would make it seem less special.

With a groan, she squirmed against Dan…which only seemed to nudge him against the curve of her bottom more firmly. In his sleep, he mumbled something fuzzily indistinct, and rubbed his face against the soft skin of her neck. 

A soft whine from the side of the bed. Holly glanced over to see Roxie waiting for her to do something. 

Gently, Holly squirmed out of Dan’s grip, then left the room with Roxie, letting the dog out the back door to do her business. She had every intention of going back upstairs with a nice strong cup of coffee for Dan, but he beat her there, long arms wrapped around her and holding her pasted close to his chest.

His kisses were gentle. “I fed the bird,” he said, as if it were the most seductive notion he could call to mind at the time. 

She leaned back into his arms and said ‘oh?’ in the most innocent voice she could conjure.’

“And I watered and fed your horse and Barry. Sooo…” She turned around. He was actually wiggling his eyebrows.

“Are you sure you won’t waste away into a skeleton if I don’t feed you?”

He crossed his heart and she chuckled, walking him right back upstairs.

****

She was growing used to the joy of waking up with a man in her arms. The soft texture of Dan’s chest hair tickled her nipples as she stretched in his tight embrace, and her thigh brushed his morning-stiff cock.

He would need to take care of that – they had learned over time that his morning erections were fun to use but impossible to orgasm with. But, she supposed, that could wait. This would be the last day of their honeymoon. They would return to Brian’s tutelage, and soon they would likely be training other traveling unicorn wizards.

Time, she thought, as Roxy came up for her morning scratching, had a way of plowing ahead and out of human hands. This time next year, the thought came to her suddenly, she might be round and sore-footed with Dan’s child.

The idea stood her still. Holly wondered if they’d somehow started a baby already. It wasn’t, she thought wryly, as if they’d been avoiding the facts of life, instead reveling in them with an almost orgiastic intensity. Her hand traveled over Dan’s soft skin, down his long back to the curve of his small buttocks. That small gesture caused him to stir, yawn and roll toward her.

“Morning,” he smiled into his own forearm. 

“It’s almost noon,” she told him. “Brian’s going to say we’re a couple of layabouts if we keep this up when we get back to the routine.”

Dan smiled. “Brian works so hard he sleeps with his eyes open.” He rolled toward Holly’s body and stroked her face. “We’d better have fun before we start doing that too.”

She chuckled softly, feeling him grind meaningfully against her thigh. Dan was gloriously unsubtle and shy at the same time. She loved that about him. Tucking her hands into his thick curls, he groaned when she tugged his head back to expose his long neck. She lined it with kisses, with little nudges and sweet bites of her teeth. Dan’s grinding turned ernest. 

“You should go take care of that if we’re going to…”

“Oh yeah.” Dan sleepily scratched his hair and jumped out of bed. She waited for him to finish using the chamber pot before welcoming him back into her embrace. 

The loving took a long time that morning. He seemed to want to know every inch of her soft body, every last bit of hers seemed to want to know his. She took him into her body as they knelt in the center of the mattress, their mouths glued together and their fingertips stroking any soft bit of flesh they could reach. She came quickly, twice over, by the time Dan dug his teeth into her shoulder and screamed his delight.

He rested his sweaty forehead against her own, and she kissed him gently, trying to savor the second, knowing soon they’d have to get up.

 

A sudden knock at the front door sent them scrambling apart. Dan found his breeches at the side of the bed, and Holly tossed her shift on. By the time they got downstairs the obnoxious knocking was fairly a drumbeat on the wood. Holly yanked the door open and was unsurprised to find Ross standing on the stoop.

“Hi!” he said cheerfully. “If you’re done boning, Brian needs you to come home, it’s important.”

Dan groaned and Holly shook her head. “I sort of miss you being a bird,” she admitted sarcastically.

“And I miss flying,” he said flatly. “I’ll keep the horses warm for you.”

 

*** 

Brian was already waiting up for them when they arrived. “Daniel,” he said flatly. “Fledgling Avidan.”

Holly felt a thrill of joy at hearing her married name. That was the first time anyone had called her by her married name. “What’s going on?” Holly wondered.

“I received word from the head of the coven that there’s going to be a summit in Secaucus,” Brian said. “I want the two of you to travel with me and prove to them I’m a fairly decent teacher.”

“So you’d be showing us off?” Dan smiled.

“To put it simple, yes. To put it more complexly, your talents will be a litmus test for the worth of my training methods. My position may be riding on this one.”

Dan and Holly locked eyes. Each of them understood that Brian’s talent and intelligence made him a lock for the head of the coven; and that anyone could take over his position at the head of the Eastern Unicorn Wizards. Other people wouldn’t be as patient or as tolerant as Brian was. The answer was clear.

“Can you give us time to pack?” Holly asked.

“Just a few hours,” Brian said. “We ride at noon.”


	21. One Lost Lamb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brian, Holly and Dan's journey to the meeting is interrupted by the discovery of a new skill of Dan's - and the introduction of some familiar faces.

Holly took a slug of water from her wineskin and glanced up at the green-strewn branches that danced overhead. They’d been riding for so long; three apace with their carefully-laden horses, making good time and good distance, but that didn’t stop things from being fairly monotonous. 

She swore they’d passed the same tree three times in the past four hours.

“We’ll be stopping at Potential Shaw’s farm for a rest, and continue the rest of the journey with his husband.” Brian said when Holly gently spurred her mare to meet up with his. Dan loped along to her right, deep within his own thoughts, but smiled when Holly passed him an orange and a handful of hardtack. 

“How much longer is it to the farm?” she asked.

“A lot longer,” Dan said, scratching his horse’s neck and wincing as it shook out its mane. They’d had to borrow a stallion for him, and he and the animal weren’t exactly getting along. “Probably not til sunset.”

“Dan is exaggerating,” Brian said. “I’m sure we’ll be there in a few more hours. In any event we’ll be stopping to water the horses at the next book.” 

“My thighs thank you,” Holly said.

Brian eyed her. “Whatever Daniel’s done to your legs is none of my business.”

“Bri. Please, please stop,” Dan begged, blushing down to the roots of his hair. She squeezed his fingertips as he passed over a small handful of dried beef strips. They’d all be given to her horse once they came to a stop.

“I would wish the same of both of you,” he said, and Dan flung an orange peel in his direction. Brian’s smile was quite subtle as they headed down the long dirt road, missing exits to cities and towns along the way. 

Unicorn Wizards had to take the back roads when out of familiar territory, so Holly tried to avoid complaining too loudly. The people of Arin and Suzy’s kingdom had barely come to appreciate and tolerate their company, so she respected the fact that Brian didn’t want them to push their luck. 

Dan started singing as they came around a hilly bend a few hours later. Holly had no idea what the tune was but it was a merry sound – he seemed as happy to stretch his legs as she was as they all dismounted and let their horses drink and feed on the fresh, sweet summer grass by the banks. Holly sat down on a rock and let her mind wander – wander far enough that when Dan snuck up behind her she shrieked in surprise at his bear hug.

“Hello,” he said quietly. “I missed you.”

“How can you miss me?” she teased. “I’ve been right there next to you the whole time.”

“I missed kissing you,” he corrected himself, and planted a big wet one on her neck, to her squirming laughter. 

Brian coughed from beside them. “Would the two of you prefer some privacy?” he asked flatly. 

“Um…” Dan mumbled against Holly’s neck.

There was a long-suffering sigh. “Would you like me to turn around?” Brian asked, all but rolling his eyes at them. 

“Just for a second?” Dan begged. Brian did as he was asked, pretending to tend to the horses while Dan kissed Holly, kissed her until she looped both arms around his neck. “I promise,” he whispered, “Someday we’ll have a private room and a door we can lock again.”

Holly laughed; what could she do but laugh at the whole ridiculous situation? Then Dan gasped and jolted forward into her arms, and she tried to clutch him to her chest.

They both quickly figured out what had knocked him over when something short and fuzzy baa’d at his behind.

Dan turned and crouched over the sheep. “Hey buddy. Whatt’re you doing out here?”

The sheep butted Dan’s hand. “Honey, I’m sorry. I don’t have anything for you,” he said, only to receive another butt to the calf from a small lamb, which trotted right up to him out of the underbrush. “I don’t have anything for you either.”

Before he could react, a whole flock of sheep surrounded them on the rock, all of them baying, looking to him for guidance.

“Holly!” he squawked out, “save me!”

Holly paged through her mind to find the right spell, but was utterly terrified she’d accidentally cause the poor things to get hurt by mistake. “Brian?!” she called.

“I’m pretending I’m not here, remember?” Brian said.

She was ready to turn _him_ into a toadstool when a piercing whistle came from high on the ridge. The sheep ceased to bother Dan and trotted merrily toward their owner. 

An owner that Holly was mightily relieved to see.

***

“Only you would be a latent sheep mage,” Brian said. 

“Shut up, Bri,” Dan muttered in the sweetest of tones. In his arms was a lamb, planted there as a test from Jack and Vernon. It was their most rambunctious newborn, yet for Dan it sat meek and mild as he cooed and fed it by bottle.

It was Jack’s flock they’d run into in the forest, just by sheer luck. Holly was happy to be taken in and fed, to have their warm crofter’s cottage all around her as they spooned out thick stews and warm bread. The company was sweet and, beyond Jack’s curiosity about Dan’s affinity for the sheep, it had been a pleasant time. Holly had known Vernon when he was a fledgling, when he had just been first courting Jack, and he always had the neatest stories, the truest ones to tell.

It was Vernon who noticed Holly watching Dan as he came over with some wine. “So, do you have anything to announce yet?”

Holly blushed. “We’ve barely been married two months,” she pointed out.

Vernon shrugged. “Isn’t that how long it usually takes?”

She shook her head. “If there’s ever anything to say,” she told him, “you’ll be the first to know.” She still felt a ball of unease in her stomach at the idea. She had no idea what sort of mother she would be, when the time came. If it came.

He smiled, watching Jack move across the room, humming to himself as he organized the dried dinner dishes. Holly wondered if they’d find an orphan of their own to adopt someday, if parenthood was in their future too. “Thank you.”

Jack pulled out a tin whistle, Brian took up a seat at their organ, Holly played Vernon’s lute, and Dan sang, dandling the lamb on his knee. She could keenly imagine him with a little girl, with someone sweet and small and vulnerable in his care. She felt a deep pang of longing then, to give him this piece of herself. 

The night passed along happily, until Jack and Vernon strongly hinted that they wanted to go to bed. Dan and Holly were installed in the guest room while Brian slept on a straw-stuffed chair in the living room.

As they crossed the threshold Dan took her hand and pressed the door shut behind them.

“See? I keep my promises,” he said, and slipped the lock closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all knew I brought up Vernon and Jack for a reason!


	22. One Tiny Rainstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unpredictability is the order of the day as Holly is confronted by an old flame and a very tiny Dan-created rainstorm.

Holly was starting to get used to the feeling of Dan’s heart beating against her ear, the sound of his breathing and the smell of his skin. Half-awake in the early morning light, she couldn’t discern the heat of him from the start of the day. She knew Brian would want to wait for a more temperate day before leaving the house, just to avoid the pain of heat exhaustion.

Holly burrowed against Dan’s warm chest, kissing at the sparseness of his muscles. She hoped it was too hot for any of them to move from the little crofter’s cottage. She even half hoped a summer rainstorm would kick up – that it would rain all the way to September.

She felt Dan’s lips brush over her fingertips as he tried to burrow back into their warm nest of blankets and sheets. “D’you think Vernon would be upset if we skip breakfast?”

Her lips ghosted over his nipple and he gasped. “You’re going to be hungry…”

“I’m hungrier for your fair, downy nethers,” he said, trying to deepen his voice. Holly squawked out a laugh. Dan flicked a finger over her nipple. “I was trying to be serious,” he said. “And tell you how like, super hot you are and how much you turn me on every day.”

“Just turn you on?” That would be enough, were she not made hopelessly romantic by her love for him.

The romance in him answered hers, quite easily. He pulled back a bit, staring into her eyes. “Holly.” And the word carried a lot of meaning, a pregnant depth that made her lean down to kiss him. For a long time they made out lazily, until Dan’s hand found a way under her night shift and stroked along the smooth, soft planes of her body. She pulled out of kissed along his belly and untied his pants. Dan squirmed out of them, a look of confused amusement playing upon his features. His hands framed his face and the quiescence of his unmoving form gave her permission to do more.

She bowed her head, kissing carefully along the tip of his cock. Bitter and salty, he filled her mouth by inches. 

Dan reacted as if she’d punched him, his back arching and his fingers digging into the mattress. “Ah! Oh!” His surprise warred with delight in his eyes. He seemed to be visibly amazed by her cleverness, of the rareness of the act, of her tenderness with his body. She redoubled her efforts and his belly went concave, his flesh jerking in her mouth. Holly pulled away and stroked him, gently, slowly, patently, and Dan moaned and desperately humped into her fist.

“Oh please? Please….” And she was back on him, gently lipping and sucking on his cock, making his eyes roll back into his head and his thighs go to cordword under her touch. It wasn’t long before his moans turned to groans, and he tried to hump up into her mouth. He was holding back, even then, even as his arousal started to visibly peak and she felt him stiffen and thicken between her lips.

“In…in your mouth?” He sounded as desperate as she felt. Her nod was part of the downward stroke that made him surrender with a wordless cry, coming in the back of her throat, thick and salty, almost enough to make her choke.

Determinedly, she gagged him down, swallowing the sour taste until he stopped throbbing and collapsed on the mattress.

She kissed her way back up his belly, over his nipples and to his lips. Dan rolled her onto her back, then plied her with kisses, using his mouth on her in ways that echoed her own adventures.

He ground himself gently into her, too limp to penetrate her but equipped with a completely willing and able tongue. Her thighs turned to bricks against his open palms as he shoved his face between her legs with a groan. She didn’t hold out for long, tugging hard on his hair, riding his face as she came and went limp in his grip.

He licked his lips, kissed her. Their flavors mingled. Then suddenly she felt a subtle damp drizzle across the bridge of her nose.

She opened her eyes. Dan was staring in the same direction. “….Holly, why is it raining?”

She glanced up. It was indeed pouring, the storm localized entirely in the confines of their room. “We haven’t done that in awhile,” she said.

“How is it going to stop?” he wondered. 

She shrugged, waved a hand over his hand and cut it down to a drizzle. That gave her enough time to recover before getting up to grab her spell book. She managed to save Vernon’s mattress but they both needed extra towels before going downstairs to join the party.

Jack was kind enough not to ask questions as he distributed the extra towels to them both at Holly’s request, and then she and Dan dressed one another, relishing their privacy and the peace of the moment. Lunch and breakfast collided, and Holly ate herself silly while Brian gave them further instructions, fondly bemused by the lovey-dovey fondness of the two couples for one another.

It took very little to get the sheep boarded up for the week, the house shut down. Soon they were all on the road together, the last six hours of their trip passing along as quickly and painlessly as she could have hoped for, the sun warm instead of scorching.

The only thing she wanted to do when the grand city of Haggston appeared in the distance was pee and water her horse. The horse – she still needed to name it – was quite happy to be paddocked, and she noticed Dan’s eyes brighten as they handed off the horses and took in the lively world of witches and warlocks that teamed around them.

It had been years since Holly had been in Haggston, but there were still familiar faces around – she’d gone to class with Brooke, who was leading a maypole dance as they entered the town square. Then there was Michael and Ryan and Gavin, all of them leading the girls on a merry chase, giving Dan and Brian a shout. The crowd parted for Brian as they approached the largest building, the enormous one made of stone that served as the government center. 

Inside men took their robes and assigned them their rooms. “Mark waits for you,” said one of the men, and Holly gave a wince – it had been years since she’d seen Mark, since he’d ascended to the head of the northern branch of the Unicorn Wizards – since... 

Dan noticed her discomfort and raised an eyebrow but she volunteered no information. They paused in the hallway to dress up from their dusty, tired traveling clothes; she put on her fanciest robes and helped Dan tie on his best, the both of them heading down to the great room hand in hand.

Down the staircase and to the right and they found Mark surrounded by a number of men, all of them whispering urgently to one another. The talking stopped when they saw Brian and Vernon – he grinned, got up, clasped both men and clapped them on the back. 

Even Brian had to grunt at the impact. Mark was a strong, strong man.

“Holly,” he acknowledged. Dan’s eyes widened at the fondness in Mark’s tone but she’d deal with his incipient jealousy later. Then Mark spread out his arms and said quiet grandly, “Welcome to the first meeting of the United Union of Unicorn Wizards!”


	23. A Big Bonfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of Holly's history with Mark begins to emerge.

Said ‘meeting’ didn’t require very much of Holly – she sat still, sipped wine when the servants, and asked questions whenever Brian or Mark posed them to her. Dan did the same, though his voice quavered with nerves more often than hers did. Her fingers found their way to his knee, spreading out over it, squeezing down gently. He owned every inch of her heart, every single vulnerable part of her – and, she supposed, every single part of him belonged to her as well.

The meal was lavish and ornate. She had baked vegetables, saw fowl and quail and pork passed back and forth along the line. There were stewed cranberries and mountains of well-whipped, fluffy potatoes. She ate herself full, watching to make sure a nervous Dan took in as much as his stomach could bear, and Holly rose to try and help with the dishes as Mark laughed, waved his hand and cleared the table with a single, magical gesture. She stared blankly down at her dessert plate and looked up to Mark’s mild chuckle.

“You always were so provincial, dear,” he said, his familiarity clearly rankling her, and she dare not glance at Dan to ascertain his reaction.

“…So,” Mark said warmly, as the servants poured spiced, warmed wine into small goblets set before them, “the trials will begin tomorrow. For fledglings this is a chance to step up, test your mettle and become full-fledged wizards. For Some….” He looked meaningfully at Brian, “the chance to prove your worth as a teacher. The competition is tri-sectioned and simple to follow: matter transference, glamouring and a display of special feats.” He sipped his wine. “As always,” said Mark, “the first competition occurs after the morning meal. I wish all of you luck.”

The implication was that they were going to need it. 

The implication was that some of them would be excommunicated from the circle of magic, never to see the others again, never to touch the inheritance that they were born to.

But Holly swallowed hard and faced him down, wishing him luck in return.

**** 

“Okay…I had to ask. What went down between you and Mark?”

She and Dan were sitting by the flickering bonfire with cups of cider, the warm summer evening setting around them, fog-heavy. Holly frowned, saying nothing, letting the fire snap and pop at their toes, the wind swirling embers toward the nearby lake.

Seacacus was nothing if not surrounded by cool bodies of water.

“It’s a really long story,” she admitted. “And I don’t know if I want to tell you. You might get upset and…” She winced and rubbed her arms, “Mark might make waves. We need to win this for Brian.” She glanced through the flames and saw Mark, heard him laughing, with his new wife on his arm. She was a young blonde thing from the desert kingdom, and Holly felt not an iota of jealousy as they kissed. It was just uncomfortable; Mark was a fine person most of the time, but his power as leader of the east coast had a tendency to look down his nose at people less advanced than he was magically. Yet he advocated for human and wizards to live in harmony; that, she thought, was the best part of him. He was contradictory and hard to figure out in a way that had always disconcerted her. The marriage would have been a nightmare.

Holly looked at Dan then, really looked at him as he sat beside her, watching her with love in his eyes. If she had married Mark she would not have had the ice castle. She would not have the memory of making a beautiful plant grow. She wouldn’t have had stolen kisses in a barn, or a gentle defloration on a bed filled with herbs. 

She would not have had Dan at all.

The very idea caused snakes and lizards to crab walk over her insides. 

Dan took her hand in his. “You don’t have to tell me right now, but I’d like to think you will. Someday.”

She reached up, cupped his cheek and drew him into a gentle kiss. The taste of apples rolled over her tongue as she touched the tip of her tongue to Dan’s. 

“What was that for?” he asked, pulling away to look down at her.

She ran her fingers through the dark red curls cresting over his left ear. “Wifely privileges,” she said.

He grinned at her, kissed her earlobe, and rested his head against her shoulder. Hours passed before they considered moving. As far as Holly was concerned a tidal wave could come and sweep her away; she’d be content to stay there in Dan’s arms forever.


	24. One Smart Hawk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The games begin...

The games began early. Holly took her spot at the very edge of the forecourt, watching Vernon weave sheep through spokes and arches – using only the powers of his mind.

“I didn’t know he could do that,” Dan whispered to Holly, watching the entire scene unfold in otherwise quiet amazement.

“Vernon’s kind of amazing that way,” she observed. “It’s always the quiet ones, y’know?”

He grinned at her and she sighed, poked him in the ribs for good measure. “I wasn’t thinking about….”

“Sex? The stuff we’re totally awesome at?” Dan wondered.

Holly sighed. “I was thinking about how I’m going to be to control a bird I’m not familiar with. It’s been so long since I’ve trained with any bird other than Ross, and he was so attuned to my commands that I never had to concentrate hard.”

“...This is the same bird that used to eat all my porridge while I wasn’t looking and now drinks all the beer while I glare at him?”

“Yep, but I think making him human’s turned him all cheeky,” she said.

“It’s not the humanity.” A fanfare sounded, and Vernon drove his borrowed sheep off of the field. Dan kissed the crown of Holly’s head – his eyes were shiny as she nervously stepped up to the green. “GET ‘EM BABY!” he yelled, standing by while the king’s royal falconer handed her a glove. Once it was donned, a feisty golden hawk hopped from his grip to her gloved fist.

“And now, “announced the royal barker, “Fledgling Holly Avidan will show her mastery of winged creatures!”

Holly barely heard the man speak her name, so focused was she on calming the bird in her grip. She noted his positive qualities - he had good balance, and was at least trying not to eat her alive. “Hello sweetheart,” she whispered, scratching at the top of his head. He clicked at her, cooing softly, and she extended her neck, her arm, trying to seem regal, hopefully projecting the right air. 

“Fly to the top of the turret, land on my husband’s head and come back to me!” she encouraged him, the words ringing across the green. She boosted his flight into the heavens. Her stomach knotted painfully as he flew, and circled, and finally landed upon the turret. 

Her knees knocked as the hawk took a wide left turn, flying over the heads of Mark and his wife, fluttering past a concerned-looking Brian, before landing atop Dan’s mop of curls.

The audience politely applauded. She met Dan’s eyes and saw relief in them as she let the bird flap down from its tall perch. Dan would be up next, to give his try with the sheep. She kissed his earlobe and he nuzzled her cheek.

She had just handed her bird back to the hawker and turned to watch Dan’s progress when the sound of confused shouting filled the air. Fear filled her gut like wet cement; these were not the sounds of happy wizards at play. It was the sound of an army invading.

As if she had conjured it from her worst nightmares, through the village green galloped an army, headed by a blond man in polished armor, a blue crest with a jaguar on his crest. Anyone who had been frozen still in fear now ran for cover; it was the Reiver, son of the local duke, a man who had always feared and hated wizards. He had been long gone on a crusade; they had believed themselves safe for nearly ten years now.

A foolish hope.

She saw his blue eyes lock, steely and sympathy-free, onto her face. He pointed his sword in her direction and shouted “ _wizards! Get them!_ ”

It was a raid. They had known

She tried to find Dan in the crowd, could hear him shouting her name as he grabbed one of the lambs to his chest and made himself smaller in the rush. _Save yourself first,_ a voice sang in the back of her mind, _if you aren’t well then you’ll never be able to help Dan and Brian._

She heeded the voice. Holly ran as fast as her legs could move, knowing that there was one place that the Reiver would never find her.

She just prayed that Dan would remember her story, and would follow her there.


	25. One Long Leap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly runs.

Holly raced. 

That was all she could do, was keep ahead of the arrows singing and shrieking by her, notching into the earth around her feet. The screams of children, the smell of smoke – she blocked it all out and tried to beat the hooves of horses signaling her doom. 

There was thick underbrush beside the village, and she rolled into them, counted to ten, before running into the clearing. Beyond the arrows, beyond the sound of shrieking voices, she ran until she had no more energy in her body, and the sun was close to setting. There, in the thicket of thorns and trees, she collapsed. 

 

*** 

 

She repeated the pattern for three days. For hours she would run, stopping only to sleep, to drink from ponds and cook small animals for sustenance, to pluck berries and fruit from trees as she went. On the fourth day she tripped over a vine and cut her leg viciously open, a few miles away from a familiar plot of burned-out land.

The Unicorn Wizard village where her husband had been raised.

Though she’d bound herself with a torn rag, infection settled into her flesh. On the fifth day, she crawled on her belly toward the basements and fell into the nearest one, unable to move further and fell into a feverish state, lying in the empty, burned-out hollow, staring up at the sky.

The idea of dying now, of losing all she had gained in this short year, was a frightening prospect, but a pleasing one, if Dan had not survived. What would she be without her husband’s warm arms around her? She would live, of course – teach whoever was left, make it her mission to murder his assassins – but life without him would be virulently unpleasant. 

Holly curled inward. All of her bravery had been exhausted by the pain, the heat. “Oh Dan,” she muttered, and stared as the blue over her head turned to white.

 

****

 

“Holly? Holly…please. Please come back to me…”

Holly came to with a start. There was something warm pressed to her ankle, which was dripping, but easing, more comfortable than it had felt in days. The air smelled sweetly medicinal, and she was covered in sweat. Then there was the taste of herbs lingering on the back of her tongue, and she groaned, tried to force herself away from the hands gripping her so harshly. How did they not understand? She had to get to Arin and Suzy. She had to alert the king. It would be Dan’s only hope for survival…

_Dan._

“Let me go!” Then she opened her eyes and saw a face lit by firelight, firelight that caught burnished curls and a haunted face.

It was him! She cupped his tear-splattered cheek. “Dan,” she mumbled thickly.

“Holly,” he sobbed into her neck, “Oh Holly!” 

For minutes they held each other, rocking against this warm grip, held on tight to the warmth they provided. She examined him frantically when he let her go. It fleeted through her mind that he’d come here – to this place he feared so much, that had hurt him so deeply – to find her.

“Are you hurt?”

He shook his head. “I ran. I ran as hard and fast as I could. And...I knew they wouldn’t check what they’d already wrecked.” He smiled then, thinly. “I found you yesterday. It’s been a week since the Riever raided the competition. I’ve been taking care of your cut and trying to get your fever to break. And I know you. I knew you’d know that they’d never try to find you here.” Immediately he plunged on, “Holly, they have Brian, and they have Mark and his girl,” he admitted softly. “They’re holding them hostage until we disband, on point of their execution.”

Her hand tightened against “We can’t give up,” she said. 

“We’re going to have to fight a hundred men. Mercenaries. I heard them talking,” he said. “We’ll have to talk to the king for reinforcements, but…”

“Then we’ll do it,” she said. Lying against the cool earth, his form beside hers, she took a deep breath.

“We should rest,” he said. “Your fever’s just broken, you’ll be too weak to move.”

“I’m stronger than most,” she reminded him.

“You can’t beat back an illness like this. Let me hold you. Rest, and wake in the morning and we will deal with this together.”

Holly curled herself around Dan, letting his warmth soak into her. He’d remembered the place of their first bonding, had found her; she could ask no more of him. 

Eyes closing, she bitterly considered the future before them. She had thought herself safe in this kingdom. Fooled herself that people like Suzy and Arin reflected the intents and purposes of all human beings. But then again - The Riever acted without the king’s permission. And Arin and Suzy – they had influence with the king…

Time was of the essence. They had precious little of it to waste.

As she fell into an undisturbed sleep, she hoped he would lend them an ear and listen, in spite of the high pile of old wives’ tales that had dogged them throughout the centuries.


	26. A Helpful Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly and Dan are forced to lean on a close friend to get the aid they need to rescue Brian and the others.

“Do you know what you must say?”

Holly had been utterly silent for most of the afternoon and evening, when they’d supped and bathed and climbed onto her beloved mare, rescued by Dan in the midst of their travail. She only regretted the time lost to the fever, the delay she had caused with her own foolishness, but Dan had not scolded her for it. They were nearly to the gates of the kingdom, which bustled on as if nothing had occurred. 

As if Holly’s entire people were not threatened.

“That the very nature of our lives depend upon it,” she said, her arms tightening around Dan’s slim waist. His long fingers in turn found their way to wrap around her wrists. “That we have been loyal subjects, and the reiver is not.” 

“Yeah,” Dan said softly. She felt his chin against the top of her head. “We’ll know if they’ve made demands. If…Brian and Mark are still with us.”

Her fingers were tight suddenly on his fingers. Gods, she didn’t even want to contemplate that possibility. “And do you think he’ll beg us pardon?”

“If not, at least we’ll die together?” Dan said. His smile was wan and his eyes were downcast. She leaned into him. The idea of death was unfathomable, frightening, nightmarish. It haunted her as they reached their first stop.

They stopped at Suzy and Arin’s shop, and immediately unhitched and rushed in. 

“Holly, Dan!” Suzy was bright-eyed when she threw her arms around each of them. Then she noticed the haunted expressions they wore and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Holly had felt the soft rise between herself and Suzy when they’d embraced. She’d pulled back to look at her and, indeed, her belly had a soft rise to it. “Suzy!” she exclaimed, taking a better look at the glamorously-dressed girl.

Suzy grinned, patted her belly. “It was the night of your wedding, actually, and I’d rather you not mention how terrible I look.”

The night of her wedding. Had it been three months before? The trip that long, her illness that terrible? “Congratulations,” Holly said, and meant it, but felt again the sting of the fact that she had not yet given Dan a babe. He shook Suzy’s hand awkwardly.

“We don’t have good news,” Holly said. “The riever attacked our conference. He’s taken Brian and Mark, and they’re both being held. We can’t find Vernon or Jack,” she added. “They may have children, I don’t know.”

Dan continued, “we need help getting an audience with the king. It’s…it would be a huge risk for both of you, I know, but we’re desperate.”

Suzy’s white face went even paler. “You’re asking me to help you see the king?”

“We know it’s forbidden, that we should stay in the shadows but…” she shook her head. “We’re not going to risk it.”

“Arin’s at court,” she admitted. “I was going to visit him to dress the queen for the Michaelmas luncheon. If you wish to come with me, I would be glad to try.”

“Oh Suzy,” Holly breathed, and threw herself into her arms. Dan enfolded them both with his own long limbs. Then they broke to shove stew into their mouths, to have bread and drink wine; to prepare themselves for their audience with royalty. 

**** 

Twenty minutes later they stood, side by side and shoulder to shoulder, at the gate of the castle.


	27. One Gambit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Holly must convince King Jack to help them in their quest to save their people and bring down The Riever.

The human royal world was rather more formal than Holly remembered. Admittedly, she’d only seen it once, when she’d been presented to the high king at the conclusion of her magical training under the mother of her home coven. He had been very old, and had eyeballed her with mild, dull-eyed confusion. When she learned he’d passed away a few months later it hadn’t been much of a shock.

His son, Jack, ruled the kingdom, and was known in general for being kind and wise and fair – though he hadn’t done much to build a bridge between the mortal world and the one ruled by wizards. Holly had only seen his face on coins before this night, thinking nothing of paying for something with a shrug and by passing it along, never thinking of where the brass came from.

And now he’d decide her entire life.

They followed Suzy inside, and noted that the guardsmen in charge happily bowed and deferred to her. She paid them no heed and ushered the two of them into a small chamber near the bailey. The rushes smelled sweetly of herbs, and a few cats lounged lazily about the greasepapered windows.

“Is this your chamber?” Holly asked.

“Where I stay if the queen has less room for me,” she said. Suzy had immediately set about finding Holly and Dan proper clothing to present themselves to the king in. “I think you might be able to fit into one of my dresses,” Suzy said, “if we pin it in a bit.” She threw it over the top of the room’s privacy screen and began to do just that.

“A dress?” Holly made a face. She hadn’t worn one since her wedding, and not often before that. The fabric was light and soft, bright green – a dress that seemed to encapsulate everything that summer was. She had no idea how she’d look in the finished product.

“Don’t worry – you’re a gorgeous woman. And you have to look your best in front of the king,” she reminded her. “The king isn’t too pretentious but every little bit of grace helps.” Her fingers flew, and Holly stood back self-conciously for a moment before rummaging among the objects in the clothes press for a circlet and jewelry. By the time she’d finished finding shoes, Suzy had procured a finished dress for her. 

“I’ll leave you two alone to change,” she said. “Dan, I think Arin’s hose and shirt are in the bottom drawer of the press – you seem to be about the same size. If it’s too loose, call me in and I’ll pin you up like Holly!” 

They were the same height, actually, but desperate measures. Holly let Suzy go, then with 

Holly threw Dan a look. He was standing in the doorway, smiling at her. “What?” she asked nervously.

Dan grinned. “She’s right. You’re a gorgeous woman.”

She laughed. “An easy compliment, from a man who took me to wed.”

“I’m not just saying it ‘cause you’re my wife!” Dan said. “You’re just…” He shook his head, stepped into the chamber and pulled his dirty, torn tunic over his head. “Even though I’d never courted a girl before you, if I had my pick again, you’d be the only star in the sky.” 

She melted at that. Cupping his chin in her hand, she drew him down and pressed her lips to his. He stroked her cheek, pressing their bare torsos together. 

“Not now,” she mumbled against his lips, and moved away, to begin stripping off her hose.

“Not now,” he agreed, and sat beside her, dressing himself.

*** 

A few moments later they were fully dressed; she in white hose and her green dress, with a circlet pinning back her hair – changed to soft red, to seem less ubiquitous. Dan walked beside her, in the borrowed outfit – carefully pin tucked back by Suzy’s hands. He was much skinnier than Arin, but it wasn’t much of a hardship to fix things.

Holly’s walk was more halting than it usually was. Dan noticed immediately. “Pinching your toes?” Dan asked. He kept stroking her hand, trying to keep her calm.

“A bit.” Holly preferred leather boots, and the cut of the shoes she wore were painfully narrow. 

“Do you want me to kiss them?”

“Dan!” 

He squeezed her fingertips. “Sorry. I’ve been missing you a lot.”

“Later,” she said.

They followed Suzy to the throne room, and the sight of them stopped all activity cold. Holly dragged Dan into a kneeling position, and Suzy kneeled as well, waiting for permission.

At last, someone spoke in a lilting accent that reminded Holly of the northern islands. “Missus Hanson,” said a voice, “this is quite unexpected.”

“I know, my king,” she said. “I come bearing friendship. And two who wish more than anything to see you and plead their case.”

“Can they not wait for the next day?”

“It’s too urgent,” she said.

A sigh. “All right. Rise, children. Plead me your case.”

Holly’s eyes fell upon the young king’s face. He was her age or roughly younger, with merry eyes and a shock of hair that clearly wasn’t naturally green. Her heart lept into her throat. Magic. Magic, or Suzy’s clever fingers. She must play her cards close to her breast. “My Lord King,” she said. “We come to plead for the lives of our people.”

“Your people?” he asked, judiciously eyeballing them. “Who are your people?”

“We come from the world of Unicorn Wizardry,” Holly said. “From Jersey. We’re the disciples of the wizard Brian, who has been ever faithful in serving the kingdom, if not the king.”

He considered Holly’s speech quietly, and then said, “Go on.”

Holly continued, “We have lived in peace for the last fifteen years, though fear and shame have colored our worlds. Our family has hidden in the shadows out of a desire. But quiet we cannot remain.”

“Who has driven you out of the shadows?”

Dan spoke then. “It was the Riever.” 

A gasp went up. Holly knew that the rest of her audience well knew the man’s motives, and that his wickedness. She waited for quiet. “He disrupted our feast day gathering with violence. Our king and our mentor have been kidnapped, and taken to the mountainous fortress. We know not if they’re alive, and therefore do not ask for much, but wish to have the man put down. He’s a blight upon the kingdom’s health that must be cut off.”

The king considered all of this, and said nothing. “You’re brave,” he remarked. “I know my father’s reign was less than hospitable to your people. But I’m not sure why I should risk my men in your name.”

“Because some things are worth the risk,” Dan said. “My mother, my sister and my father – they were killed by your father’s name, before he mellowed in his later years. It was my brother who turned his heart around. I have the courage to kneel here before you and risk my neck because of him. Because without Brian’s nurturing I would have been dead.”

The king considered his speech. “Then I will give you aid, then,” he said. Holly bit back tears – there will be no use in crying even in relief, for she had been given the greatest gift any witch had been given. “Only a few dozen of my men, of course, and only a few of my archers. But you have indeed been good to my father in spite of his prejudice, and the riever does indeed blight our world. I would be delighted to have his head.”

“Thank you, your grace,” Holly said.

“Thank you,” Dan echoed. 

“Suzy,” said the king, “your husband waits in his chambers. He’s got the last sketches down for my portrait – careful when you see him, he may be working.”

“Thank you, my lord,” Suzy said. She made haste to be with Arin. Holly and Dan waited another minute before he waved his hands.

“You’re dismissed, children.”

They turned heel and carefully made their way back to their temporary lodging.

“You were wonderful,” said Holly. 

“Oh, thank you,” he said quietly. 

Then he took two steps toward the bed and fainted dead away.


	28. A Trade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Holly approach the Riever’s lair.

Four hours later – astride a shared palfrey, Dan’s arms wrapped around Holly’s middle – they and the forty men with King Jack’s colors upon them made rapid haste toward the run-down castle in the southland that the Riever had claimed as his own months ago. 

Holly didn’t feel fear. Nor did she feel excitement at the prospect of battle. What she wanted was nothing more than to survive the day and keep Dan, and win back Brian and her people. How much the day would deliver was yet to be seen.

Dan’s hand tightened upon her hip as they came to a stop just before the deep, dark moat; the wasted and wrecked sight before them had belonged to the Buford family once. Now it was a testament to the evils of the Riever’s greediness. A man missing his two front teeth, in rags, sat at the parapet, and started at the sight of them, grabbing his lance. “Who goes?”He cried.

“We come in the name of King Jack!” yelled the headsman, a tall, pudgy man with a heavy beard. “Show us the Unicorn Wizard prisoners and we won’t make trouble!”

There was a scuffling sound. Holly kept her eye on the parapet, and soon the space was filled with Brian’s wide eyes. She saw Mark a minute later beside them. Both were dirty and disheveld and were clearly being fed less than they would normally be fed, but they were alive. Holly’s heart sped up as her stomach unclenched.

She could feel Dan’s breathing speed up. To see Brian held in such a dangerous position must have been unbelievably frightening to him.

“Dan!” Brian yelled, only to take the butt end of the lance’s handle to his neck. 

“Quiet yer bleedin’ hole!” the guard yelled. “What do you want with ‘em?”

“We would negotiate,” the man at arms said, “but if there is no plan, we will come to blows!”

“Negotiation?” came a dull voice from the portcullis, “how incredibly dull. But I suppose I could endure it. If you’re desperate enough.” 

It was the Riever – Holly knew, even though she’d only heard of him in songs, seen glimpses of him during the raid. 

“Let us in and we’ll talk,” said the man at arms.

“I don’t want to talk with the king’s people. He’s been unkind enough to me, and I don’t want a single thing more to do with him.”

“Then who will you have words with?”

“The girl,” he said, as Dan’s grip tightened once more. “The girl and the boy with the curly hair. I will speak to no other.”


	29. A Daring Gambit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly and Dan are invited in to speak with the Riever.

“Are you sure you’re comfortable…”

Dan’s fingers brushed gently against the back of Holly’s wrist. He was holding on to her loosely but firmly, and their feet made the drawbridge creak as they progressed across it. “I’m fine. I’m worried about you more than anyone,” he said quickly.

Her fingers caressed his wrist gently. “Dan, whenever I’m with you even the worst possible situation feels like good luck.”

“Aww,” Dan remarked. His eyes brightened, even as they faced down the gloom looming before them. The imposing right hand men walking them through the portcullis and to the great room where the riever held court. Dan’s grip got tighter as they stepped over the threshold. She mentally prepared a spell, something to freeze the bastard if anything should happen to either of them.

If the castle had been clearly run down, clearly deliberately stolen and used property, then the interior had been golded over with ill gotten gains. There were fine silks draped over beautifully polished furniture, and fine silverware gleamed on the table. Polished wooden trenchers circled a fat, freshly-roasted fowl. Several black-costumed men sat around the table, swilling beer and wine; dotted about them, flitting from the kitchen to the table, were women in low-cut dresses, fawning over their chosen men. Holly knew enough about camp followers to understand what would be happening in the dark after they were gone.

After they were hopefully gone.

“I see you’ve taken my offer,” the riever said, his voice oily and overly sweet.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Holly said. 

“Well,” he said. “I’m not one to leave an open door when I can squeeze it tight.” He took a large bite out of a handful of bread. “And have you come to save your people?”

“Of course,” Holly said.

“We’ll pay whatever you want,” Dan interjected. 

The riever smiled. “I don’t want money,” he said quickly. “Our coffers are rich and fat as we need them to be.”

“Then what do you need of us?” Holly asked.

“Magic,” he said. “I know you possess it. Your elder wizard has tried his best, and gotten far, but he tires. For his release, and the release of your king, I will take you,” he pointed at Holly. “You have three days to produce the steel I seek, on pains of execution.” 

“What do you want from me?” Holly wondered. 

“I require you to forge a form of steel that’s unbreakable. It will allow me to overtake King Jack and the birthright my father was denied and become the leader of this kingdom.”

Holly’s mind raced. Brian knew so much more than she did. If Brian hadn’t been able to create steel firm enough for him, then what good could she be?

“I don’t wish to be parted from my husband,” Holly declared firmly.

The Riever looked him up and down. “I’ve heard of this one. Skill-less, latent in talent…” Dan glared at him, but the Riever laughed. “I have no use for him,” he said. “He may stay elsewhere.”

“I will do it,” Holly said without hesitation. Dan’s squeezing became painful. She saw the panic in his eyes. 

“But…”

She stared into his eyes, until his breathing evened out, until he calmed. “I can do this,” she whispered to him. “Bring Brian somewhere safe,” she said.

Dan’s eyes brimmed. Abruptly he was pulled away – abruptly the space where his head was had been filled by the Riever. His men dragged Dan off, and Holly was being pulled in the opposite direction.

“Release her people,” said the Riever. “Never let it be said I’m not a man of my word.”

“You don’t know what you’ve done,” Holly said, though the Riever didn’t hear her, and as she was carried off and up a long flight of stairs to the tower room.

Holly felt no fear. Her faith in Dan was of iron, clad in steel. She knew he would come to save her.

The only question was when.


	30. And An Ice Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The confrontation between the Riever and King Jack's men reaches its acme, and Holly and Dan must fight for their happy ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is Over, and I have Feelings. Thank you to everyone who read along over the past couple of years!

The days passed by in an endless line of grey, chilly words. She was fed, given exercise, and questioned daily, but they did not kill her. She had no idea why. Perhaps they knew her faith in Dan was so strong that nothing could break it – not a thousand charging horses or a million arrows. Her magic was willingly bound and she sweetened their water and cleaned their plates. They could not hear the wicked anger hiding in her mind. When she was free she’d make them pay for the hurts they’d caused.

Time passed quickly, and soon the questions they had for her thinned to trickle. Holly’s mind stayed sharp; if they decided she was no longer of use to them in their quest against the kingdom then it was likely she would be dead weight. Dead weight equaled dead person. Fear filled her but it also gave her purpose. Soon it was winter again. Chilly and barren as it always been, she had not felt the loneliness of it so keenly the year before, when Dan had courted her merrily throughout the long white-bound days. 

Would she ever feel the sweet, cool grass of home under her feet again? Kiss her husband’s lips? Know the soft fluffy fur of Tinkles rushing beneath her fingertips? 

She started making plans and prepared herself. A small knife stolen from the scullery hadn’t been noticed, and when they searched her they never checked the curve of her elbow. A handful of dates, a pinch of nuts taken during long hours cleaning brass pans weren’t made notice of by her temporary rulers. Rags to wrap over her summer shoes to insulate them likewise. She kept an ear to the gossip mongering and understood that Christopher, the Riever’s man at arms, had recently gentled a strong colt for riding. They guarded their horses like gold in this camp, but Holly knew that her magic would be enough to stupefy them all. Only her word and her faith in Dan kept her bound to this place – honor, in a culture that told her time and again she had none. 

Yule passed, and The Riever treated his prisoners to sweetmeats, oranges, apples and pears. Holly ate some for strength, secreting the rest. She began to understand his people, came to know why so many young ones would give themselves to the somewhat empty promises of the freedom he claimed. They wanted freedom from tyranny, the youthful desire for rightness and fairness, seeming not to recognize that the happiness the Riever parceled out to them was just another form of meanness. Young men died by their swords. Young girls were promised love and thrown like chunks of bread to the camp boys. Children were born sunk into the land, unremarked upon, unmarked.

That would not be Holly. She was going home. She would tutor other young wizards in the world of magic, would live her days out happily with Dan –would give him the sons and daughters she’d promised him, the night he’d almost died going to the absolute limit of his strength for her.

At the beginning of the turn of the year, after months of his stumping speeches, the Riever seemed nervous at dinner. She knew the stores were starting to grow skimpy, and that his skirmishes with the king had resulted only in him returning with wagonfulls of dead, nameless young men. He spoke quite grandly that night of leaving the castle and claiming the woods in the summer. She knew nothing else about his plans after that; only that she would not allow herself to be part of them. The time for peace was gone; the time for action at hand.

On the day she planned to make her escape – during the first wind-driven snow, alone in her room and in the midst of her hundredth solitary breakfast, riders appeared on the horizon.

*** 

Holly pressed her face to the greasepaper, dragging the chair she was bound to behind her, staring in utter surprise at the regimental force before her. These were the king’s best men. These were, she realized rapidly, also her friends – Vernon and Arin, Suzy and Jack, walking among the pack, armed with bows or swords or knives.

And at the head of the group, sitting on unicorns, were her husband, Brian, and King Jack.

She couldn’t hear what he was yelling, too high off of the ground on such a The words were taken by the wind roaring about the castle. The Riever’s returning words shook when they exited his shrinking lungs, but Holly could not hear them. If only she could get closer!

Then a pair of firm hands grabbed her shoulders, pulling her firmly back into the belly of the room.

When they slashed through the bonds tying her legs to the chair, she nearly wept. 

 

*** 

There would be more weeping, as they propped her beside the Riever, his best men at either side of her, knives pointed at her throat. For the first time in four months, she locked eyes with Dan as she stepped to the edge of the parapet.

“She is well!” the Riever shouted. “As you can well see!”

“And how long may we trust this fact?” King Jack wondered. “Until she’s no longer of use to you? Until some whim of yours results in her death? Give her here and be gone from my kingdom! We know that your men are depleted! You barely have enough to hold this strip of land!”

He sneered down. “How haughty of you. What’s made you so brave? Is it because you’ve aligned yourself with these accursed wizards!?” He jabbed the tip of his sword into her throat, drawing a bead of blood; Dan startled forward in his saddle, held back only by Brian’s palm on his chest. 

“You won’t win a battle. You know it.”

“Then my legend will live on!” he shrilled. An answer she always knew he’d give if pushed up against the wall, uncaring of the child soldiers and barely mature men and women he led into battle. He prodded Christopher in the wrist, and Holly gasped as she was shoved toward the edge of the parapet.

Several things happened at once. She heard King Jack scream for his men to attack. Felt Christopher shove her from behind, sending her tumbling headfirst into the moat below.

And Dan’s voice, high and frantic, screaming her name over the sounds of a newborn battle screaming to life.

*** 

When the ice broke over her head, Holly kept her wits about her. She opened her eyes, held her breath against the ugly muck. She could not reach her dagger bound this way! Desperately she groped in the darkness for something to cut the ropes against and felt the ragged outcropping of the wall behind her, rubbing the material until it frayed and gave. Her promise to bind herself was gone. When she surfaced into the frigid air, it was to a rousing battle that her people and the king’s men were winning handily. 

She climbed from the surface and joined in the fray.

Holly’s magic cut through the men, through their grasping hands and shouted words. Their blood coated her face and underscored her nails. She searched for Dan, the whole time, seeing him briefly only once – leading a flock of sheep into the fray, baying with vicious, surprisingly sharp hooves.

Any alarm she might have felt at their rapacious murdering spree was muffled and silenced. The curses and sound of incantations mixed with the cries of men and women and the sound of weapons and animals hitting the ground. 

She had work to do.

When the battlefield was cleared out of all but Jack’s men and the wizards, when they’d taken the castle, she looked up from the mess to hear the Riever’s shout. Standing at the foot of the bailey stairs, He’d dragged Dan to the ground by his hair, sword poised over his throat. If he could not take Jack or Brian, he would take the life of her husband; would set an example even if it killed him. Sweat dripped down Holly’s back; the world seemed to move much more slowly than normal. She took her knife – the tiny dagger she’d secreted for so many months –and threw it with as much force as she could manage.

Maybe it was a miracle that lodged it in the Riever’s ribs, into his wicked heart, just seconds before his blade would have come down on Dan’s jugular.

Through the foggy distance they saw each other. Through the empty, icy space, she quietly reached, both arms extended, a cry upon her lips. 

Dan rushed across the space, blindly pulling her into his arms and holding on as if he’d never let go.

 

***

Later – after King Jack had reclaimed the fort, after they’d offered the remaining men and women a chance to join their society, after they’d buried or carted the dead away and fell hungrily upon the rations King Jack had brought with them, even after they fed the animals in the stables and she claimed Christopher’s recently-broken horse as her own - Dan took her upstairs to the warmest chamber, stripped her of her sodden clothing and rubbed her ivory skin with heavy cloths until she felt dry and human once more.

Between kisses and touches he told her of his own winter – the loneliness as he and Arin had convinced Jack to act, to trust the Unicorn Wizards fully. How he’d led the sheep to become a strong troop willing to follow his commands. 

“I knew you were waiting out there for me,” Dan said. He took her hand between his fingers and kissed each tip as he laid her down, body to body, and drew the curtains closed behind them. “I knew you wouldn’t forget.”

“Never,” she said against his lips. “I’ll never forget.”

“Holly,” he murmured, “oh Holly!”

And though neither of them knew it at the time: as the moon waxed over their heads, as the king and the wizard grew merrily drunk together, as the sheep grazed on hay and oats with the horses of the enemy, deep within Holly a new life had started.

*** 

 

**Six Years Later**

 

**** 

 

“Mama?”

Holly looked up. She’d been so absorbed in remembering that she hadn’t heard her daughter come in through the back door. “I’m sorry, honey,” she said, putting down her shears and pulled off her glasses, judging the job done. The magical tree she and Dan had grown so many years ago still thrived - perhaps overmuch, it required constant pruning and constant infusions of magic to keep the children from turning it into a candy production tree. “Is your father done?”

“He said it’s all ready,” she said. “I helped him! And Arthur got in the way.”

Holly smiled. The girl and her brother were always at harmless small-scale war with one another. She fluffed out her daughter’s hair before picking up her indigo cloak from the workbench. “Susanna, someday you’ll be happy you had a little brother to bug you.”

Susanna rested her hands on her hips and frowned. “Hunniebun would be a _much_ better brother.”

Holly laughed, took her daughter by the hand, and guided her outside. Arthur, Dan and a still-spry-in-her-dotage Roxie were running circles around each other, tossing snowballs and chunks of slush at one another, shrieking merrily. When Dan saw her, he looked up, his dark eyes shining.

Time stood still. Suddenly she was a young bride walking toward her husband again.

It was ruined when Arthur hit her with a snowball. 

“Apologize to your mom!” Dan ordered between laughing gasps. 

“Sorry, mommy,” Arthur said, and he did seem truly sorry, his big brown eyes turning wide and tragic. Holly wiped off the fluff of snow and laughed with him, briefly crushing him to her chest.

“Wanna see how it turned out?”

He nodded solemnly, And together the four of them walked to the ice castle Dan had made with the children. 

Inside it was just as beautiful as it always had been, sparkling rainbows over their heads. When the sun cascaded light through the ice the children ooed as the light glimmered overhead and filled the little castle with light. They sat together and drank warm cider, waiting for Arin and Holly and Brian and even Barry the Unicorn to appear to share in their bounty.

They weren’t the only ones who were impressed. “Have you ever seen anything so…”Holly asked quietly, when the sun was beginning to set and the children snorkel and doze against her.

“Beautiful,” Dan echoed beside her.

But when she glanced over at him, he was looking right at her.


End file.
